Harry Potter, Jedi Planeswalker
by The Anonymous Agent
Summary: Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts to discover he has a planeswalker's Spark as well as Force Capabilities. SW/HP/M:tG crossover
1. Story of my life

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I own nothing of or pertaining to the story. Some of the quotes said by the characters in this story are going to be from both the Harry Potter and Star Wars (maybe MtG… not likely though…) books and/or movies, and I have slightly modified some more, so if you recognize any of them, they are property of their respective owners!

I was eight years old when Hermione Granger moved in next door to me, and since then; my life has never been the same...

…_It's been a week since she moved in, and she's already told me I'm a wizard. I'm starting to think that she's just a little crazy…._

…_Today I made Dudley vanish into a snake cage at the reptile house in the London Zoo. I think Hermione was right about the fact that I was a wizard. I'll probably never take her the same way again... _

The first thing I heard after I woke up this morning was stomping on the stairs and Dudley yelling

"WAKE UP POTTER! WE'RE GOING TO THE ZOO!" I reluctantly got up from the sleeping bag and toddler sized mattress I used as a bed. I unlatched the lock on the door to my room, which most people would call it a cupboard if you showed them, and opened it. As soon as I took a step out from under the stairs, Dudley pushed me back in and kicked the door closed. I groaned, wishing he could be just a little less obnoxious and rude like his father. I remembered that Mrs. Figg was supposed to be watching me while the Dursley's were out. Mrs. Figg was a nice woman, probably the single nicest person to me, except for Hermione of course. I wondered why I couldn't stay with the Grangers instead of Mrs. Figg, possibly one of their attempts to make me as miserable as possible. I got back up and went into the kitchen, where I received orders from Aunt Petunia to finish cooking breakfast. While I was scrambling the eggs, I heard Dudley complaining about how many presents he received.

"THERE'S 36? WHY IS THERE ONLY 36, I GOT 37 LAST YEAR!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.  
"Well Dudley, some of them are a bit larger than the ones you received last year."  
"I DON'T CARE HOW BIG THEY ARE!"  
"Alright Dudley, here's what we're going to do. After our trip to the zoo, we'll go out and buy you two new presents, how's that sound?" Aunt Petunia asked him. This seemed to calm him down a little bit, but he was still quite mad, judging by his extremely red face. I finished the eggs and served everybody. I scarfed down my breakfast as fast as I could in case Dudley got too angry and knocked the table over.  
"Hmm… two new presents? OK, but as long as I get to pick one out." Dudley said in a stern voice.  
"That's my son there, Dudley, always willing to bargain." Uncle Vernon said as he patted his sons head. Just then, the telephone rang, so Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Dudley greedily dug into his presents. He was just finishing unwrapping a new computer game when Aunt Petunia got back from her phone call.

"Mrs. Figg says that she's broken her leg and can't watch Harry while we're out. Should I call the Grangers to see if they can take him?" She asked Uncle Vernon.  
"Yes, that would be a pleasant idea." Was his reply; for you and me both, I thought as Aunt Petunia walked back into the kitchen. A few minutes later, when Dudley was ripping the wrappings off of a racing bike, Aunt Petunia came in and said  
"They can't watch him today; they are In London right now shopping. So does that mean that we have to bring him with us?"  
"Nonsense." Said Uncle Vernon "What about your friend Evan?"  
"On vacation in Kent."  
"Y'know… you could just leave me here." I said hopefully.  
"And come back and find the house in ruins? I don't think so." Aunt Petunia said angrily.  
"I won't blow up the house! How is that even possible? I don't have any explosives or anything!"  
"Yes but what about that Granger girl, oh, what's her name… Who cares, it's not important. She's been teaching you magic."  
"Has not! She's crazy! I know that magic isn't real! Do you think that I would believe all that rubbish that she's been trying to tell me?" Aunt Petunia looked quite surprised at that remark. But she didn't say anything else except for "He's coming with us, whether we like it or not." Just then, Dudley screwed up his face and wailed. I knew it had been years since he really cried. But we both knew that if he looked sad, his mother would give him anything he wanted.  
"It's OK Duddums, Mummy won't let him ruin your special day!"  
"Bu-b-b-bu-but I don't wan-wa-want him t-t-to come!" Dudley cried. She sighed and let him finish pretend-wailing. After he finished opening his presents, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had no choice but to bring me along. Right before I got in the back seat of his new car, Uncle Vernon stopped me and said "If there's any funny business, any at all; you won't have any meals for a week! Now get in." No food for a week? That's not the worst he's threatened, but still, it was a lot. Of course, I could always swipe food from the pantry when they weren't looking. I've been doing that for ages. Lord knows they've underfed me literally all of my life. I was still thinking the prospect over when I saw the entrance sign for the London Zoo. We got out of the car, purchased out tickets, and went inside. The first thing we did was go to the ice cream stand to buy sweets for Dudley. Because the lady that was running the stand at that time asked me what I wanted before Uncle Vernon could hurry me off, they were forced to buy me a lemon pop, which I greatly enjoyed. To say the least, so far I was having one of the greatest days of my life. Dudley however, was getting rather bored by the animals; I was forced to walk a few steps away from Dudley so he wouldn't hit me to cure his boredom. Soon it was lunch time and we decided to have lunch at the Zoo Restaurant. After lunch, Dudley wanted to go to the reptile house. When we walked in, it was cool and dark inside. The first exhibit we went to see was a large snake that, according to the plate on the glass, was big enough to wrap itself around cars and crush them into trash cans. But right now, it didn't seem quite in the mood. Dudley tried to wake it up by banging on the glass. But it was no use, it just kept sleeping. Dudley went off to look at another snake. I stayed there, feeling sorry for it, having not ever seen its parents, like me.

"Don't mind him. He doesn't know what it's like, lying there day after day, watching people press their ugly faces in on you." Just then I saw the snake's body move to where it was looking at me. "Can you hear me?" I asked, somewhat scared. It nodded its head vigorously. But before I could reply to it, Dudley pushed me aside, wanting to have a look at the now active snake. I was really mad at Dudley for being such a git like that. He was always doing things like that. Just then, the glass to the exhibit disappeared. Simultaneously, Dudley fell into the water and the snake slithered out, stopped at where I was sitting, and said "_Thanksss." _  
"Anytime." I replied as I watched it slither to the exit of the reptile house. I stood up to see Dudley banging against the glass. _Glass! _Just a minute ago, it wasn_'_t there, now it came back? This was becoming a very strange day indeed. After a minute of laughing at Dudley's spectacle, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon came running to the shouts of their son. Aunt Petunia panicked for what seemed like years when zookeepers went in through the back entrance, retrieved him and brought him around to where I was standing. Minutes later, we were in the Dursley's car, on the ride back home. When we got back, Uncle Vernon dragged me inside and yelled at me:  
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"  
"I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW, ONE MINUTE THE GLASS WAS THERE AND THEN IT WAS GONE! IT WAS LIKE MAGIC JUST LIKE HERMIONE SAYS! Whoa! I'm a wizard! Score one point for team Potter!"  
He then threw me into my room, then collapsed onto the ground. I looked at him for a moment, then closed the door and latched it. Not wanting Dudley or Aunt Petunia to bother me right now….

…_Yesterday and today were two of the strangest days I've ever had in my life. Yesterday, I received a letter that was addressed to: "Mr. H. Potter, Cupboard under the stairs, Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Winging, Surrey." As soon as I started to open it, Dudley snatched it from me and showed it to Uncle Vernon. Immediately, both him and Aunt Petunia had scared looks on their faces. The then unceremoniously ripped the letter to shreds. Then today, I got another letter. After Uncle Vernon lit a fire for the sole purpose of burning it, he threw them in quickly before I could catch him or pour my glass of water on the fire to put it out. Then, what sounded like an earthquake was actually a flood of letters, I picked one up, it was addressed to me. After the living room was covered in them, Aunt Petunia and Dudley ran out of the house with their hands over their faces. Then Uncle Vernon shouted: "WE'RE GOING AWAY! FAR AWAY! WHERE THEY CAN'T FIND US!..._

Uncle Vernon gave us ten minutes to pack our things. After we had everything situated and packed into the car, we drove away from the house. After about six straight hours of driving, Uncle Vernon got out of the car near the coastline and locked everyone else in. After what seemed like hours, he returned and said: "Found the perfect place." He then got in and drove to a small, rickety bridge. It was attached to what looked like a large rock. But when we got closer, I saw a small shack on the rock. It looked like a handful of children's blocks stacked on top of each other, like it could fall any minute. Dudley was complaining that there wasn't any television this far away from shore. He said it was Monday and his favorite program would be on. If today was Monday, tomorrow had to be Tuesday, my birthday. After we got unpacked and settled in, well, as settled in as you can with a house in this state; we ate what little food Uncle Vernon brought and picked out our sleeping space. There was not much to do during the day, so we just hung around the living room until it was time for bed. After everybody else went to bed, I watched Dudley's wristwatch tick down the time to my birthday. Ten minutes. Five minutes. Three minutes. One minute. Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One. BOOM! There was a rumbling all through the shack and I saw bolt upright. It happened again. And again. Someone was knocking to come in. On the next knock, the door fell over, revealing a large, tall, bearded man walk into the small rickety shack. His head nearly touched the ceiling. He stepped in, turned around, picked up the door and fitted it back into its proper place. He then sat down on the couch, lit up the fireplace, and started looking around for something. I stepped out from where I was hiding. I got a good look at his face before he saw me.

"Ah, there you are 'arry, I didn't see you there!" He said. "You look a lot like yer dad ya know. But you've got yer mum's eyes." I recognized his face from the Hogwarts, A History book Hermione let me borrow to browse through. I never bothered reading it, but it did have photos of all the current teachers with their names underneath.  
"Ru-Rubeus Hagrid? Is that who you are?" I asked, scared.  
"Why, yes it is 'arry! Well done! I was surprised you recognized me. How did you know? I know it wasn't those muggles upstairs, so who's been showing you those things."  
"Uh… Her name is Hermione Granger. She's been living next door to me for close to three years now."  
"Granger eh? I don't recognize the name, she must be muggle-born then?" He questioned me.  
"Yes sir." I replied.  
"No no. No need to call me that. I'd prefer Hagrid, thank you. I suppose you've made arrangements to buy your things with her in Diagon Alley then?"  
"Yes." I replied. Just then, Uncle Vernon came running into the room carrying a rifle, he pointed it at Hagrid and said: "I demand that you leave at once, you are breaking and entering!" Hagrid walked over to him, said "Shut up Dursley, you great prune." grabbed the rifle's end and twisted it up so that it was pointing at the ceiling. Uncle Vernon tried to shoot it, but instead of going straight like he thought it would, the bullet shot up through the ceiling with a deafening BANG! He walked back over to the couch where I was sitting and said: "Happy birthday 'arry! Here, I've got summin for ya." He then reached into the pocket in his coat and pulled out a small, square box. I looked at it for a moment before opening it. It was a small cake with icing words on it that said: "Happy Birthday Harry!" He said something about sitting on it on the way over, but when I took a bite, it tasted fine. No, scratch that. This was one of the best things I've ever tasted in my life. After a moment, he said "I've got summin else for ya too. Here ya go." And he handed me a copy of the letter. I looked nervously at Uncle Vernon, suspecting that he might try and take it from me. When he made no move to do so, I broke the purple wax seal on it, took the paper out of the envelope and read: "Dear Mr. Potter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts." Suprisingly, not as many questions erupted in my head as I expected, thanks to Hermione. Some of them that did, however, were about the list of supplies I was reading over.

"He's not going! I'll not pay to have some crackpot old fool teach him magic tricks!" Uncle Vernon yelled. Hagrid was just about fed up with him at this point and said: "You try and make one move to prevent him from going and you will be one of the most hated people in our world. Now, if I were you, that'd not be a good place to get yerself stuck into. Dumbledore and nearly everyone else in our world would send the worst howler they can manage. And if you do, I'll give everyun yer address so that they can do so." Hagrid growled angrily. I assumed that the warning was heeded, because he backed up to the wall by the foot of the stairs and didn't say a word.  
"So you knew about me? You knew all this time and you never told me?"  
"OF COURSE WE KNEW BOY!" Was all Uncle Vernon could say at this point. Aunt Petunia was too frightened by Hagrid to say anything else, for fear it would provoke him further.  
"Well, do ya at least know yer story?" Hagrid asked me, still obviously angry at the Dursley's for not telling me anything.  
"Yes, I know that. That was one of the many things that Hermione explained to me."  
"She sounds like a good girl, this Hermione. She pulled through even when yer own aunt and uncle couldn't. At least I don't have to explain it. It makes me cry every time I think of it…" After a pause, he said: "Well, since you're going shopping with miss Granger, I suppose I'd better give you the key to yer vault now. Don't lose it. And Dursley, don't take it from him. If you do, I know where you live, and I'll not be happy." Uncle Vernon looked as pale as a ghost while he said this. After Hagrid was done talking, he fainted, falling to the ground with his back propped up against the wall. He said his good-byes to me, and walked out of the hut…

…_Today Hermione offered to give me lessons on how to best prepare for the wizarding world and I accepted. She insisted that we started immediately. The first book she showed me was a copy of Hogwarts, A History. She let me borrow this one before for a couple of days after I forced Dudley into the snake exibit. I couldn't figure out how she even read that book, let alone understand it. She also tells me that muggles born wizards were harder to grasp the concept of magic being real, but she apparently got it very quickly. She told me she found out that she had magic in her when she was doing a school project on bean plants, she concentrated on the plant, and it show up six inches in ten seconds..._

…_Today Hermione wanted to come over to my place to help me study; to which Uncle Vernon literally threw a fit about; but Hermione finally persuaded him to let her come over every once and a while…_

It was a quiet Saturday morning when we heard a knock at the door. Uncle Vernon got up from his seat on his armchair to answer it. When he opened it, he looked down and saw Hermione standing there.

"Who are you?" He asked, overly-rude.  
"I'm Hermione Granger. I was wondering if I could see Harry for a moment please?" She replied with the sweetest voice she could.  
"How do you know Harry?"  
"Me and my family visited here while you were out a few months ago."  
"And why should I let you do that?" He asked in an even ruder voice.  
"Uhh… because you want your nephew to go out and meet people instead of being cooped up under the stairs all day?" She said  
"WHAT! HE TOLD YOU THAT! NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? NOW EVERYBODY WILL KNOW OUR SECRET!"  
"What secret?" Hermione asked in a soothing voice to try and calm him down.  
"YOU KNOW WHAT GIRL! WE'VE BEEN KEEPING POTTER UNDER THE STAIRS ALL THESE YEARS! THAT'S WHAT YOU BAFOON!" His face was turning a deep shade of purple.  
"Well… if you wouldn't lock him under the stairs, you'd have nothing to worry about."  
"PERPOSTUROUS! THERE'S HARDLY ANY ROOM FOR HIM NOW!" He yelled.  
"And you are absolutely right about that. He barely has room to lay down properly under there. Maybe if you could at least let him sleep on the sofa and not lock him up in that thing all day."  
"AND WHY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO THAT?" His face was turning darker and darker every second.  
"Because it would be doing the right thing?" She asked  
"YOU-YOU—POTTER!" He called. I had to stop myself from laughing at the sight of his face, it looked so funny.  
"Yes Uncle Vernon?"  
"Do you see this girl here?"  
"Uhh… no, you're blocking the view of the doorway, so I really can't see outside at all." And with that, he blew his top.  
"DAMN KIDS! DO YOU SEE ME BOY! DO YOU SEE HOW ANGRY I AM RIGHT NOW?"  
"Uhh… yes." I said.  
WELL, IF YOU CAN TELL HER THAT SHE CAN'T COME IN HERE, THEN I MIGHT LET YOU GET OUT OF THAT THING LIKE SHE WANTS!"  
"But don't you want people to come and visit? Besides, the Granger's would be one more family you could brag to about Dudley and the overly-clean state of your home."  
"WHAT?" He yelled even louder this time. "Ohh… ummm… very well girl, you can stay, but only as long as you bring your parents with you."  
"Yay!" Hermione yelped as she ran back to her house to fetch Mr. and Mrs. Granger.

…_After that incident, Uncle Vernon let me move out from under the cupboard and let me have Dudley's other bedroom. She seemed to have a positive effect on my uncle, because after that day, he seemed to yell at me a lot less… _


	2. Welcome Harry, to Diagon Alley

Today, me, Hermione, her twin sister Riley, and her parents are going to Diagon Alley to purchase our things for Hogwarts school. She came over to my place at 8:00 in the morning to come and get me, after we got back to her house; Riley kept joking around saying that she liked me.

"Come on Hermione, just admit it!" She yelled.  
"Admit what?" Hermione replied.  
"That you like Harry!" Riley yelled back  
"Do not!"  
"Do too!"  
"Do no-" Hermione started to say again when she was interrupted by her father yelling "ENOUGH!"  
"Sorry…" the twins replied together.  
"Now then, Hermione, Riley, Harry, we'll be going now, so the faster you get in the car, the faster we can leave." Their father said as he started walking out the door.  
"Shotgun!" Riley yelled as she ran out the door.

The trip there was not very eventful, but when we got there, it looked like an old, run-down pub. Hermione had said something about the secret passage to get in. When we got inside, we started to go to the back of the pub, but the bartender noticed me and said: "Look everyone! It's Harry Potter!" Then everyone stared in my direction. Several people got up from their seats to come and shake my hand. Once that was done and the initial shock passed, we proceeded to go the back of the place.

When we escaped the crowd, in the back room there was a solid brick wall, but when Hermione touched the bricks in a code of sorts, the bricks parted and formed an archway into Diagon Alley. Hermione said that we should start towards Gringotts bank to collect our money for supplies. When we got there, Mr. Granger handed the goblin the key to their vault; he asked for mine. I gave him the key, he was suspicious about it, so he asked for my name. I gave it to him and he took out a tray and a small knife.

"This won't hurt a bit, Mr. Potter, it's just for identity check." He said reassuringly. After a moment of looking at the tray and the screen that was attached to it, he said. "Harry Potter has inherited the Potter Vault."

He then gave me my key back. After this exchange was over, we headed into a door that led to a small rail cart. We climbed into it as the goblin said and we zipped off to the Granger's vault. After they collected the money they needed to buy their things, we headed towards my vault.

"Mr. Potter, please give me your key, as your vault needs goblin magic to open it properly." The goblin said as I handed him my key. He ran his hand from as high as he could reach to the bottom of the door. He then motioned to me to walk inside while he was pulling one of the doors out. After I walked up to the opening that the goblin had made for me, all I could do was stare at the contents of my vault, there was money literally stacked to the ceiling as far back as I could see. I half-walked, half-stumbled inside and picked up a medium sized bag and stuffed a few handfuls of what Hermione had described to me as Galleons, the most valuable piece of wizard money, and walked out the door. The goblin closed it behind me and jumped back into the card before making it whiz back to the entrance to the dungeons. We got out of the cart, gave the goblin out thanks, and headed out the door.

"Harry, Riley, we should go to Ollivander's next, so that we could pick up our wands." Hermione said as we walked over to a ancient looking shop with a sign hanging over it that said "Olivander's Wands, Established 382 B.C."  
"Now I know why this place looks so old." I said mostly to myself, but I could've sworn I heard Hermione giggle at that remark.

After we went in, all I could see was rows of bookcases standing from the counter all the way back to the end of the room, all filled with narrow, black boxes. Just then, an old looking wizard walked over to the counter and said "Welcome to Ollivander's Wand Shop, how may I be of assistance today?"

"We'd like to purchase our wands today, if you don't mind." Hermione said in a nicer than usual tone.  
"Well then, let's get started. Who would like to go first?" He asked.  
"ME!" Riley yelled.  
"Ok miss, let's start with this one. 8 ½ inches, holly and dragon heartstring." He said as he handed the wand to Riley, who then gave it a wave. The result was that she floated Olivander up in the air, and crashed him back against a bookshelf.  
"Ohh… sorry Mr. Olivander." Riley said.  
"Nonsense, that's nothing compared to the worst results I've seen." He said as he handed her another wand. "10 inches, elm and Phoenix Feather."  
She gave the new wand a wave, and a jet of water erupted from its tip and made quite a spectacle in the air above us.  
"Ahhh… That wand fits you dear. Now, who's next?" Ollivander asked. Hermione walked forward as the old man gave her a wand. "9 inches, Vinewood and Dragon Heartstring."

Hermione wave the wand and all of the wand cases flew off the shelves, did a dance of sorts in the air, and returned to the bookcases. Olivander went over to observe.

"Hm… the all went back in the proper order. This one's a perfect fit for you. First try too, that almost never happens." He said as he took the wand and put it back into its case and placed on the counter next to Riley's wand. "Now, for you, Mr…"  
"Harry, sir." I finished for him.  
"Ah, Harry… let's see… try this one." He handed me the wand, it looked silver with a jagged and rough handle. I waved it and I heard a loud shatter come from across the hall.  
"No no no… not that one." He muttered, half to himself as he picked out a new one for me to try. He gave it to me and I observed it for a moment, it was black, with what looked like tree bark on the handle. I gave it a wave and a bright orange glow emitted from the ceiling for a moment, then it stopped.  
"Marvelous… I never suspected…" He mused.  
"What's wrong with this one sir?" I asked, slightly confused.  
"This wand is Holly and Pheonix Feather. The Pheonix that gave it's core also gave one other feather… one other…" He trailed off. "It is curious that this wand chose you when it brother gave you that scar…"  
"Uhh… OK… I guess. How much will that be then?"  
"10 Galleons for each of them." Ollivander replied. I handed him the 30 Galleons required, gave the twins their wands, and walked out of the store.  
After Hermione caught up with me, she asked "Harry, why did you do that? Me and Riley could have paid for them ourselves."  
"Oh come on, I'm not allowed to spend money on my friends anymore?"  
"But seriously, you didn't need to do that." She insisted.  
"It's no big deal; anyway, did you see all that gold my parents left for me?"  
"Yeah, I guess so." She replied "So, where to next?"  
"I was thinking Madame Malkin's Robes." Mr. Granger replied from behind us. We were approaching the shop at a slow pace due to the crowd and all of the fingers pointed my way. When we got there, me and Riley were all but lost in knowing what to get, but luckily, Hermione knew what we would be needing. She gave me some instructions on what to get and dragged Riley along to the girls section. When I got to where Hermione said the school robes would be, I saw a short, platinum-haired boy complaining to a woman helping him into a set of robes that he obviously didn't like. They were mainly red with stripes of yellow running along the sides. I tried to ignore the spectacle, but he was being too annoying for anyone to shrug it off. I quickly selected the amount that my Hogwarts acceptance letter suggested and headed for the checkout counter. I stood in line for a while, wondering what was taking the girls so long. Finally, after about 10 minutes of waiting in line, they showed up; each holding an armful of school robes. When we checked out, Hermione and Riley placed their clothes on the counter before I could. I thought that Hermione had talked with Riley and wanted to prevent me from buying anymore school supplies for them. After we checked out and left the store; it was decided that we would go to the magical pet shop. After a few minutes of walking and listening to Riley pestering Hermione about me; we walked into the shop. It had walls lined with cages. Most of them were occupied by either an owl or a cat. I browsed the owl section with Riley while Hermione went to look for something else. After a few minutes of searching, I found it. It was perfect. It was a snowy owl with brown and black spots on its wings. Lucky for me it was on a low shelf; so I could grab it myself. I decided to call it Hedwig, I heard this name in Hogwarts, A History and thought it sounded nice. After Riley selected an almost exact opposite of mine: it was a black barn owl with white and gray spots all along its body, we went to look for Hermione. We found her holding a cage containing an orange cat, which she named Crookshanks. We walked to where the checkout counter was when we found Mr. Granger. He had apparently lost Hermione in the crowd and was looking frantically for any of us. We bought the pets and proceeded to walk out. The rest of the day went in a fashion such as this. We managed to buy everything we needed for the upcoming school year; which consisted of quills, ink bottles, books, cauldrons, and potions ingredients. Both Riley and I were utterly clueless on what any of this stuff was. So Hermione showed us what we would need, and I got the quantities that my letter suggested; Riley did the same. Hermione, however; went overboard on the ingredients, saying that she would need more later on in the year. After the long day of shopping, we drove back home. On the way back, Hedwig and Riley's Owl, whom she had not named yet, started hooting angrily at each other. Me and Riley tried to calm down the birds, but to no avail. We even tried to give them treats, but they just kept hooting at each other. This went on for several minutes. Finally, Hermione had enough of it. She asked Mr. Granger to pull over, which he did, slightly confused. She took Riley's owl, got out of the car, walked around to the back and stuffed it in the trunk. She walked back to the front seat with a triumphant look on her face. She got back in the car and buckled in. Her father then started driving again.

"What was that?" I asked.  
"That… was me getting those stupid owls to shut up." She replied with a mischievous grin. After we returned to Privet Drive, Mr. Granger stopped at Number Four to let me out. I grabbed my things, said my thanks for taking me, and closed the door. They stopped at the next driveway, unpacked their things, retrieved Riley's owl from the trunk, and went inside.

The rest of the summer proceeded normally, or as normal as possible with my living conditions. I still went over to the twin's place almost daily for Hermione to help me and Riley get used to the wizarding world and to Hogwarts. Little did I know that this knowledge would help me survive not too far down the road…


	3. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts

Today is September 1st, which is now unarguably the greatest day of my life, today we're off to Hogwarts at last! No more Uncle Vernon locking me in my room during all waking hours, no more Aunt Petunia forcing me to cook and giving me nothing to wear except for Dudleys old clothes. And especially no more Dudley around to beat me like a punching bag and snap my glasses in half for the umpteenth time. At least, not until next July. But that wouldn't be for nine more months. I'm gonna try as hard as I can to make the most of this year at Hogwarts. These and so many more thoughts zoomed around inside my head on the way to King's Cross Station. Mr. Granger had used some of the money from my Gringotts vault to pay for the tickets, much to Hermione's constant bickering, but I managed to calm her down by letting her do something for me. She ended up, once in the station, fixing my glasses with a repairing charm, something I never heard of before, but I made sure to remember it. After Hermione and Riley said their goodbyes to Mr. Granger, we boarded the train. It took a while to find a compartment that was empty, but once we got in, we fell into almost immediate silence, that is, until Ron showed up.

He slowly opened the door, stuck his head inside, saw us and said: "D'you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else if full." The three of us agreed. So he came in, sat down next to Riley and across from me, and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Ron Weasley" he said, holding out his hand.  
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." I said as he shook my hand a bit nervously.  
"Is it really you? D'you have the, the… scar?" He asked, slightly apprehensive.  
"Yeah." I said as I lifted up my bangs to show him the lightning-shaped scar on my forehead.  
"Wicked…" Ron said excitedly. He turned away from Harry, looked at Riley and said "And you are…"  
"Riley Granger." She shook his hand excitedly "And this is my twin sister Hermione." She motioned to Hermione, who was looking out the window when Riley introduced her, she didn't hear a thing. "Hermione… HEY!" She nearly shouted, then her face lit up with sadistic glee. "Hermione, Harry's asked you to marry him!"  
"HEY!" I shouted before she finished her sentence. Her face shot away from the window, she looked at Ron and shook his hand politely. She then looked back outside and was lost in her thoughts once more. Me and Ron had quickly chatted each other up about this and that. Mainly about Quidditch, which I knew little about. But luckily he helped me understand the rules, and about which spot I'd like to try.  
"I think I'd be best as either a Chaser or a Seeker." I said.  
"Yeah, you look like you've got a seeker's build. I'd enjoy being a keeper most." Ron replied to me. Silence followed. After a moment, a trolley came by to offer us sweets. Ron loaded up on what he explained were Chocolate Frogs. I got a few Chocolate Frogs and 2 boxes of Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans.  
I paid for the candies and looked at the back of the box of jelly beans. "Wow, they really do mean every flavor, huh Ron?" I asked.  
"Yeah, there's chocolate and peppermint, and there is also, spinach, liver, and trout."  
"Eww… gross." I said, but in spite of this, I opened the first box of beans, took one out, and placed it into my mouth. It tasted quite good. I wondered what flavor it was, so I asked Ron.  
"What color was it, mate?" I told him it was White with small green stripes on it. "It was… a Green Peppermint."  
"Wow, not bad for the first one!"

The rest of the trip past rather uneventful, but I did open up a Chocolate Frog that had a trading card of Dumbledore on it. I didn't get to eat the frog because it hopped off of the card and out the open window on the other end of the cab.

After the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station, I heard Hagrid calling: "FIRS' YEARS! THIS WAY! COME WITH ME! FIRS' YEARS!" He kept repeating this until he thought all of them were there. We walked after him for a while, then came across a large, crystal clear lake. He then showed us into several small boats. Hagrid climbed into one and shoved off. I was wondering how the boats seemed to move on their own, and finally decided it was another spell placed on the castle. Me, Ron, Hermione, and Riley all climbed into one and pushed it off the beach. It sailed by itself until we got to the other side of the lake. When we got off of the boats, we walked silently to the main entrance of the castle. Professor McGonagall was listing off what exactly would happen when we walked through the large double-doors in front of us.

While the Professor was talking, a short, platinum-haired boy walked up to me and said: "I'll bet you don't know what you're doing here, do you?" He held out his hand to me. "I'm Malfoy. Draco… Malfoy. I can help you out."  
I stared at his hand for a moment and said: "I think I can find the right sort for myself, thanks." After I said this, Hermione tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to follow her into the Great Hall. The place in real life was so much bigger than I could have imagined. The house tables were lined up to the left and right of the aisle that we were walking in now. And the sky… wow. The roof was enchanted to make it look like it did right above out heads outside. There were floating candles dancing around in the air, I assumed that the room was magically lit, because those candles were the only source of light I could see from where I was. Soon we stopped walking and the Professor started calling names out to come up to be sorted. After a while I heard: "Granger, Hermione." She walked up nervously to the chair that the sorting hat was sitting on. She took it, placed it on her head, and sat down. After a moment of careful consideration, the hat said: "GRYFFINDOR!" The whole Gryffindor table erupted into applause immediately. She ran down to take a seat in an empty spot. "Granger, Riley" was next. She followed Hermione's suit, but instead of the hat thinking long and hard about it, it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" almost immediately. After a few more minutes, I heard the Professor call out "Malfoy, Draco." He walked up to the stage with a proud and arrogant air about him, placed the hat atop his head. He didn't even get a chance to sit down before the hat called out: "SLYTHERIN!" The Slytherin table started cheering as he walked over to an empty chair. After a few more minutes, she called out: "Potter, Harry." Instantly, I heard murmurs coming from all of the house tables. I walked up, still a bit nervous, I'd been trying to calm myself down since we walked in. I felt the hat debating wether to put me in Gryffindor or Slytherin. _Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin. _I kept repeating inside my head. At last, the hat called out: "GRYFFINDOR!" I felt a strong sense of relief wash over me as I took a seat in between Hermione and Riley.  
"Harry, this is Fred and George Weasley, two of Ron's older brothers he was talking about." Hermione introduced me.  
"Ah, Harry Potter. What a pleasure it is to meet you." Fred, or was it George… shook my hand. Then the other one did the same. We talked for a while about this and that, as it turns out, we had a lot in common, we both liked sneaking around and pulling pranks on others, Dudley was my usual, and favorite, target. We heard "Weasley, Ronald." being called and I turned around in my seat to watch him get sorted.  
"Gryffindor." The twins said in unison. The hat agreed with them and Ron took a seat next to the twin across from me on my left. Ron was the last to be sorted, so after he took a seat, Dumbledore stood at the podium and said that the Forbidden Forest was off limits, curfew was 10:00 PM for all except for prefects… and "I'd like to welcome our newest teacher to Hogwarts. Professor Jace Beleren!" He announced and the student body erupted into applause. I noticed he was wearing different looking robes than the rest of the faculty. He was wearing dark blue robes with a hood hanging down from it, there was a design on them that looked like the Ancient Greek Omega symbol with a circle around it. He had dark, raven colored hair and what looked like white face paint running in two lines from his right eye down into is robes to where I couldn't see it anymore. I guessed that it stopped somewhere around his chest. He had on a thin, dark blue leather, or at least that's what it looked like, sash. It had a large sapphire jewel attached to it. After the clapping died down he said: "Professor Beleren will be teaching Ancient Runes, this is a course required for third-years, so if that is you, you will have the pleasure of learning from this fine young man. Jace's gaze met Harry's. He felt a tugging sensation in his head. He looked away. Ow. That hurt. What was he doing? I remember Hermione saying something about Legilimency… whatever that is. The feeling that I had felt just like what she described. Only more real. Before I had an idea about what it felt like. But that was it. That was the real thing. Mind reading! That was it! That's what legilimency is!

"Hermione!" I hissed at her.  
"What is it?" She asked me.  
"The new Professor, Beleren, or whatever it is. He's a legilimens!"  
"What?" She whispered back to me, obviously curious."  
"We'll talk about it later, up in the common room or something, OK?"  
"Alright Harry. I hope you know what you're talking about though." She said as she continued eating. After another hour, the students were finished eating and the Gryffindor Prefects were the first to rise to take the first years from the house up to their common room. We followed them up the staircase about seven or eight flights of steps, moving steps, but steps they were all the same. They announced that the password for this year was to be "Heroes." After we walked in, the room was empty, due to the rest of the house waiting behind us. We walked in after the prefects and took a closer look around. The room was quite large, with two fireplaces, several armchairs and sofas in front of them. To the left and right were flights of stairs. We were told that these would lead to the boys and girls dormitories, respectively. By the stairs, there were quite a few small tables each with three chairs standing by them. It was quite a cozy place. Not wanting to go to bed yet, I slumped down onto one of the sofas. Hermione followed suit, landing next to me.

"So, what were you saying about Professor Beleren?" She asked me in a harsh whisper.  
"Oh… I forgot all about that. I said that he's a legilimens. I felt him, oh, I don't think 'reading my mind' would be an accurate description. It was more like 'peer into my every thought and memory' kind of thing. It felt strange during it, but afterwards, my head just hurt."  
"I see… I wonder what he was looking for in your head." She wondered.  
"I don't know. I'm gonna go to bed. I really don't want to be too tired for my first day at school. Good night, Hermione." I passed Ron and Riley on the way to the stairs, who were sitting at one of the small tables talking. "Night Riley. Ron, see you when you get upstairs, I guess." I then walked up to the door that said "First Years, Boys" on it. I walked in, spied the trunk that had my initials on it, grabbed some pajamas out of it, got changed, and fell asleep instantly on my bed.

_Pop!_ A dark-cloaked figure appeared in front of the Senate Headquarters on Coruscant. He knew that apparrating in between galaxies was hard work, but he never would have thought it could drain him so much. He walked up the stairs that led to the entrance and walked inside. Once he found a lone figure walking through a dark hallway, he raised his wand and said: "Imperio!" The man stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his new master. "You will take me to your leader." The man said. The slave passed up the wizard and walked into an elevator with the dark-cloaked figure on tow. He pressed a button on the wall, and the elevator instantly shot upwards. After a moment, the elevator stopped and opened it's doors for the passengers. The slave walked down several long and narrow hallways until the slave stopped and motioned to the doors that were in front of him. Avada Kedavara! The wizard said as he pointed his wand at the other man. He instantly fell to the ground with a quiet slump. He walked through the doors, which then closed behind him faster than he could think.

"Welcome, Tom. I've been expecting you." A man in a black cloak with the hood up said to him.  
"Nobody calls me that. My name is Voldemort." The dark figure spat at the man in the desk.  
"Very well. I assume you are here to learn my form of magic." The man said.  
"Yes, Lord Sidious. I am at your disposal." Voldemort said, kneeling down in front of the desk. This was something he never did, but this time he felt it would be necessary to gain his support.  
"So, you wish to become a sith? Then you must know that there can only be two sith in this galaxy. One master… and one apprentice. I have an apprentice currently. If you wish to replace him, go to the Geonosis System and eliminate him, to prove you are stronger than he."  
"As you wish, master." Voldemort said. This was not in his character either; he justified it by using it to gain the Sith's approval. He walked outside and Imperio'd a pilot to take him to the Geonosis System.


	4. Enter the Jedi

Since I haven't put a disclaimer on the story at all, here's one for you: DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Magic: the Gathering, those are the property of J.K. Rowling, George Lucas, and Wizards of the Coast, respectively. I do, however, own 32 copies of the Armadillo Cloak card, which I am very proud of (2 of them are in Japanese!).

The next morning, I was awoken by a bell chime coming from the common room. After I got dressed in my school robes, I walked downstairs to find Hermione and Riley were making a bell float in the air, and every time it was turned to a 45 degree angle, it would make a chiming sound that nearly deafened me.

"Oh, Harry! Good, you're up! Now come on! We're gonna be late for breakfast." Hermione said as she grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the common room and nearly half-way down the staircase when I convinced her to let me go. When we got into the Great Hall, we found a seat by Ron, Fred, and George, who were planning some sort of prank on Filch, the castle caretaker. They let me join in the planning; but we were off to a bad start. So far, all we managed to come up with was to place a stink-bomb on his cleaning equipment, which Filch thought was his second most important possession; the first being his cat. We were still deciding what to do when I saw Riley walk into the Great Hall.

"Hey guys! What are you talking about?" She called as she took a seat next to Ron and piled her plate high with eggs and sausage.  
"A prank we can pull on Filch." Fred and George said in unison.  
"I just thought of one." She replied with a sinister grin on her face.  
"What is it then?" Ron asked.  
"I'll explain it to you all during lunch." Riley said. Just then, McGonagall handed them each a class schedule.  
"Let's see… Flying, Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Double Potions." Hermione read off of her sheet of parchment. I looked at mine, it was exactly the same as the list order Hermione read out. Ron and Riley's were also identical to ours. Fred and George's were exactly the same as well. I finished breakfast and walked out to the Quidditch Pitch. Ron and Hermione followed. Riley came running after us a minute later; she had been discussing pranks with Fred and George. After we got there, I was met by Draco Malfoy and a first year Gryffindor named Neville Longbottom. After I managed to get Malfoy away from me, Madam Hooch walked onto the field and started handing out broomsticks. She instructed us to place them on the ground to our right, then to place our hand above the broom, and say "UP!" I did this, and the first time I said it, the broom flew straight to my hand. Hermione looked at me, slightly annoyed. I looked over at Ron to my right, he kept saying it a bit forcefully, and it came up and smacked him in the face. Me and Riley laughed at this, he looked sideways at me angrily, but this just made me laugh more. After the brooms were securely in everyone's hands, we were instructed by Madame Hooch to:

"Kick one leg over across the broom, hold it securely with both hands, and kick up from the ground hard. Fly up for a moment, and touch back down." Neville was the first of us to do so. He flew up, tried to come back down but lost control of the broom and flew off. We tried to convince him to come down, but he said he couldn't control the broom. As he passed overhead, his robes snagged on the gargoyle that was on top of the tower. He hung there for a second, then his robes tore and he fell to the ground. Madame Hooch sprinted over to where Neville lay on the ground.

"Alright, you. I want everybody on the ground until I come back. If I catch any one of you with both feet off the ground I'll have you expelled before you can say Quidditch!" She said as she picked Neville up and sprinted over to the castle.  
"Hey look! Longbottom's got a rememberall!" Draco said as he picked up a red glass ball. He paraded around with it before I shouted:  
"Give it back Malfoy!"  
"And why would I do that, Potter?" He spat at me. I made a lunge for it, to which he climbed on his broom and said: "If you want it, come and get it." Then he took off. I started to mount my broom when Hermione grabbed my arm and said:  
"Harry, you heard Madame Hooch, you'll get expelled if she catches you!"  
"Yeah, if she catches me!" I said as I mounted the broom and took off after Malfoy. We both started picking up speed when he shouted to me:  
"You want it Potter, well then go and get it!" He threw the ball as hard as he could towards the castle. I followed it. The ball was getting dangerously close to the castle when I caught it. I was about five feet from the castle when I stopped to turn around. I saw Professor McGonagall turn around in her chair when I hit the window with the end of my broom. She looked at me, got up from her desk and started walking out of her office when I flew back down to the Quidditch Pitch. After a moment of celebrating, I saw Professor McGonagall walk down to where we were standing. She called my name and beckoned me over to her, Hermione gave me a scared look, but I followed her anyway. We walked silently for a while, until we got into the castle.

"Uh, Professor, where exactly are we going?" I asked nervously.  
"To the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom." She replied.  
"But Professor, I don't have that class until this afternoon." I said.  
"Yes but, I want you to speak with a student that is in that class." We walked along for a moment longer before we reached the door to the classroom. She knocked on the door before entering. I waited for her to come back out, when she did, a tall, sixth or seventh year boy was following her.  
"Harry this is Oliver Wood. Wood, I have found you a seeker!" She said excitedly.  
"Him? A seeker?" Wood asked nervously.  
"Yes Oliver. I saw him catch a rememberall while speeding towards my window."  
"Impressive Potter." He said. McGonagall dismissed him back into his class. She escorted me back to the Quidditch Pitch for the remainder of the class, but it had already finished. When I found Ron and the twins, they asked what happened.

"McGonagall said I'm going to be the new Gryffindor Seeker." I said.  
"What?" Ron asked.  
"Really!" Hermione almost yelled.  
"Cool…" Riley replied.  
"Naw, really?" Ron asked her.  
"Hey! I was just saying!"  
"Yeah right!" Ron said.  
"Enough you two!" Hermione yelled. She then proceeded to drag us to our next class, which was Charms. When we got there, sitting at the desk was a short (and when I say short, I mean like 2 ½ feet tall short.) He told us to take a seat. I sat at a desk with Ron and the twins took another.

"Ah, now that all of you are seated, we can now begin today's lesson. On each of your desks you will find two feathers. One for each student. Now, point your wand at the feather and say Wingardium Leviosa. Don't forget the swish and flick! Say it with me! Windardium Leviosa." We tried this several times. We didn't get it at all. Hermione, of course, got it on her first try. She corrected us on the pronunciation and wand movement plenty of times before we finally got it to go. Over all, I thought the class was fun. It was only my first day and I already was the Gryffindor Seeker and knew how to levitate things, and it was still early! Our next class was Transfiguration, which Professor McGonagall was teaching. Hermione begged us to run, but when none of us would, she ran ahead of us, rather irritated and upset. We walked along the castle corridors when we heard the clock chime 11.

"Uh, Ron, Riley… What time does Transfiguration start?" I asked.  
"Eleven… uh-oh…" Ron said. We broke into a run immediately after he said this. Finally, we located the classroom and ran into it. There was a cat sitting on the desk where McGonagall should be sitting. Me and Ron placed our bags on an empty desk while Riley placed hers next to Hermione. Just then, the cat jumped off of the desk and transformed into Professor McGonagall. Everybody was in shock at what they just saw, even Malfoy, who seemed to be stuck up about everything.

"Would one of you three explain how you arrived so late? Maybe I should transfigure one of you into a watch, that way, the other two could arrive on time." She told us, rather harshly.  
"We got lost, you see." Ron explained  
"Or perhaps a map." McGonagall replied. She turned around and sat back down on her desk chair. She then went into an in-depth explanation of how to turn a tea cup into a mouse. It was fun, but immediately after the class it was time for lunch. While we were on our way to the Great Hall, I realized I was starving. So as soon as I sat down across from Fred and George, I piled my plate high with food. Everyone expectantly looked at Riley, who was confused for a moment, but soon figured out what everybody was waiting for.

"Ok, so here's what I thought of during breakfast: We turn his cat into a pink, fluffy rabbit." She said triumphantly.  
Fred and George looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Riley. Together, they said "Brilliant Riley." Ron thought this idea was hilarious, and immediately started laughing. I made eye contact with Hermione for a moment before we burst into fits of giggles. Fred and George left the table early. They told us that they needed to plan on exactly how they would transfigure the cat into a bunny. The clock struck one o'clock. I looked at my schedule, I saw that Defense Against the Dark Arts class was starting at 1:30, so I got up from the table as soon I scarfed down the rest of my meal. Hermione got up and followed me, while Ron and Riley continued to greedily eat. I managed to get a map of the castle from Professor McGonagall before I left Transfiguration. It would have been near impossible to find the classroom without it; I didn't remember much of the way from earlier this morning when I went to see Oliver Wood. I found the classroom without much effort. Immediately after the bell rang, Ron and Riley came running into the classroom, panting heavily. Hermione and I turned around in our chairs to see them walk down the steps and take a seat at an empty desk close to the front of the class. The teacher, Professor Quirrel, taught us about certain types of Dark Magical Creatures, one of which included The Eldrazi, which were a mutated, magic eating species that existed almost exclusively in other galaxies. What little information we have of these creatures was obtained for us by beings known as Planeswalkers, wizards who could travel to other Planes, or worlds connected to each other by the AEther, a thin veil of magic that seperates planes. Professor Quirrel told me that I should pay extra attention to the class just before it started. After it was done, I used my map to bring us to the Potions classroom, a small dungeon room just a few floors below the DADA classroom. The Potions master was a very shrewd man, with black, greasy hair. The Slytherins of the class were his obvious favorite students, whilst the Gryffindors were by far his least favorite. He ended up taking 100 points from Gryffindor by the end of the class because I didn't know the answer to the questions he asked me, and because Hermione raised her hand and shook it madly after each question. I would seriously need to have a discussion with some of the other professors about him. After the class was over, we decided to go back to the common room for a minute before dinner. We talked about the classes we attended that day. Hermione said that Charms was her favorite.

"Yeah, just because you floated the feather on your first try." Ron said, annoyed.  
"Hey! It's not my fault that you were pronouncing the incantation wrong!" Hermione replied.  
"Well, it's not my fault they made it so bloody hard to pronounce."  
"HEY! KNOCK IT OFF!" I shouted. They stopped glaring at each other and looked at me. They cooled down and took a seat back onto the couches. I looked at the grandfather clock standing by the wall and said: "We're going to be late for dinner. Let's go." We walked down to the Great Hall and took out usual spots across from Fred and George. Wow, I've been here 24 hours and I already have a usual spot at the table.

After several moments of piling high our plates and loud munching noises later, Fred and George started talking to themselves, but loud enough to where we could hear them easily.

"Fred?"  
"Yes George?"  
"Have you noticed something odd about this table?"  
"You mean the fact that we're not the only red-headed pair of Gryffindor twins anymore?"  
"Yes, exactly!" At that moment, they both cast a spell that turned Hermione and Riley's hair a bright, neon blue. Everyone that saw this bursted into laughter. Hermione wondered what was going on, but Riley took a strand of her long, now neon blue hair and placed in front of her face to see what the Weasleys did to it.  
"AAHH!" She screamed. "Hermione look! Our hair is BLUE!" When Hermione saw this, she also freaked out. Fred and George decided to leave it like that for the night. They told us that they would change it the next day at breakfast, which annoyed Riley very much. After dinner, when we were in the common room, Percy Weasley, Ron's older brother, came to deliver a message to me. I opened the parchment, and read

To Mr. Harry Potter, Hogwarts' resident Jedi…

Hello Mr. Potter, please come and see me in my office next Friday, at 9:00 PM after dinner.

Professor Jace Beleren.

"What could that mean?" I asked Hermione. "And what's a Jedi?"  
"I don't know. I guess we'll find out on that Friday."  
"Let me see it." Ron said as I handed him the note. "Whoa, what did you do? You're already getting private chats with a Professor you haven't even met yet!"  
"Oh come off it!" Riley said.  
"Hey, isn't next Friday the date of Gryffindor's first Quidditch game?"  
"Yes, it is." Hermione said. I told the gang that I was tired and ready for bed, so I took my note back from Ron and went upstairs. That night, my dreams consisted of bright blue streaks of light attached to long, thin pieces of metal.


	5. Quidditch and a Lightsaber

NOTE: I KNOW THAT IN THE BOOK, THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH TOOK PLACE AFTER HALLOWEEN, BUT FOR SAKE OF CONVINIENCE, IT HAPPENS BEFORE THAT IN THIS STORY. Sorry for any confusion that it might cause. And it can be prevented by reading this NOTE. Thank you. Why are you still reading this? Please hit the "down" arrow key to begin chapter….. Why the heck are you still here? I SAID GO DOWN!

The next day, classes passed quickly, mostly because of the suspense of my meeting with Oliver Wood. Yesterday, we arranged a meeting on the Quidditch Pitch to discuss the game. Fred and George reluctantly changed Hermione and Riley's hair back to the deep red-brown that it naturally was. When I walked out to the Pitch, Oliver was waiting for me in the center standing by a large, brown box.

"Hi Oliver. What's the box for?"  
"This Harry, is where the balls are stored." Oliver said as he opened the box and picked out a large red ball with three big dents in it. "This one is called the Quaffle. It's the chaser's job to throw it into those three hoops. The Keeper, that's me, tries to defend those hoops." He picked up a small bat that looked like it had several brown stains on it. "This, is a beater's bat. You use it to hit bludgers at the opposing team. These are the bludgers." He said as he unlatched one of the balls that was trying to escape the leather straps that was holding it down. The ball instantly flew off. He gave me one of the bats while taking the other. The ball sailed along the pitch once before coming back to me. I hit it with the bat and it flew into the left hoop on the other side of the pitch.  
"Not bad Potter. You'd make a good beater. Uh-oh, it's coming back." He said as I watched him catch the little brown ball with his arms and chest and struggle it into the box and latch it. It looked incredibly hard, and even painful to do without any help. After he got the bludger into its straps, he undid a little compartment on the lid to reveal a small, golden ball. "This one is called the Golden Snitch. You catch this Harry, and we win."  
"I like this ball." I said in amazement of the little gold ball.  
"Ah, you like it now, just wait until it's running away from you at top speed." He said as I gave it back to him. He put up the snitch and closed the box. He then told me I could get going to my next class, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

When I got to the classroom, I took a seat at my place next to Hermione. Ron and Riley were sitting at their desk across from us. Professor Quirrel proceeded to talk more about the Eldrazi. As I knew from yesterday, the Eldrazi were massive, magic-eating beings. After draining a world of it's magic, they move on to the next. The Professor said that to gain access to a planet, they needed a magical artifact from that world. If they were to come to Earth, they would need the Sorcerer's Stone. He explained the Sorcerer's Stone as an artifact that can turn any metal into gold and produce the Elixir of Life. After this class, the next two weeks passed swiftly, mostly in anticipation for the Quidditch game.

Today is the day of the first Quidditch Match of the season. I was lucky to awake so early, because if I had gotten up any later, I would have been late for the game. I got dressed as quickly as I could and literally ran down the stairs into the Great Hall. As I took my seat, I was greeted by both sets of twins, Ron, and Neville, who, since the incident in flying lessons, we had befriended. I was busy scarfing down a sausage link when two owls came into the Hall and dropped a package literally on top of my plate. It was long and narrow. It also had a letter attached to it. I opened it up and read:

"Dear Harry, I thought it would be such a pity that the youngest seeker in 150 years would have to ride on a stock broom, so I purchased this one for you as a gift. Please do not try and give it back to me on the basis that first-years aren't allowed to own brooms because I have cleared that issue up with the Headmaster. Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration Teacher."  
"Whoa Harry, McGonagall gave you a broom!"  
"Well, let's open it up then." I said. We unraveled the package to find a long broom with a curved handle at the end, with gold words on the tip that spelled out: "Nimbus 2000"  
"It's not just any broom. It's a nimbus 2000!" Ron said excitedly. I finished gobbling up my breakfast and took my new broom down to the Gryffindor changing rooms. Fred and George followed me, admiring the broom literally the whole way there. I promised them that after the game was over they could have a ride on it. We got suited up silently. Then the voice of a third-year Gryffindor by the name of Lee Jordan started welcoming everyone to the game. When he called out Oliver's name, he mounted his broom and took off. One by one, the team zoomed out of the changing room. He called my name last, and when I went to where I was supposed to be starting the game from, Madame Hooch blew the whistle and the game began. I knew that it was my job to ignore everything else and just look for the snitch, but I just couldn't help to listen to the commentary while searching. Five minutes into the game Gryffindor scored a goal. We were up 10-0. I continued to look for the snitch when I felt my broom tug at me. I tried to keep it under control, but it just kept shaking harder. It knocked me off of it to where I was holding onto the handle with my body dangling 100 feet over the ground. I tried to get back up several times, but every time, it jerked harder and I gave up. Suddenly, it stopped jerking around and allowed me to get back up. I turned around after I was properly seated and saw that Professor Snape was on fire. (No really, his robes had literally caught on fire.) He and Professor Quirrel were thrying to stamp it out when I returned to my post of looking for the Snitch. Finally, I saw it. It looked like a glint of gold across the field. I flew at top speed after it. The Slytherin Seeker also saw it and flew after me. He tried to bump me against the stands once, but the snitch took off on a steep dive so he didn't get to do it again. We were flying at a 90 degree angle towards the ground and the snitch wasn't pulling up. I looked over at the other seeker just as he pulled up. The snitch pulled up just before it hit the ground, I pulled up on my broom as hard as I could and leveled out three feet from the ground. I reached out my arm to try to grab it, but I didn't quite catch it the way I wanted to. As I reached out my arm, the snitch flew backwards into my mouth and the momentum of the thing pulled me off my broom and I fell backwards onto the ground. I got up and realized that I was almost swallowing the snitch, so I spit it out and held it up high, to which the crowd (except for the Slytherin section) burst into cheers. After the crowd had subsided, me and the Weasley twins were left on the pitch. I gave the broom to Fred first, who took a few laps around the pitch and landed next to me.

"Wow Harry. This is a great broom. No wonder you caught that snitch."  
"Um, actually Fred, I almost swallowed it." After I said this, both boys started laughing hysterically. After they were done, Fred gave the broom to George, who not only went a lap around the pitch, but went through a few hoops and took a dive from about where the top of the stands were all the way to the ground, just like I did not ten minutes ago.

He landed behind me and said: "Wow Harry. This broom is amazing. I won't be surprised if you won us every single game this year with a broom like this."  
"Thanks." I said as he handed the broom back to me. "Hey guys, have you finished working on that charm for Filch's cat yet?"  
Their eyes lit up when I said this, and together they said: "Yes we have."  
"Would you like to help us?" George said.  
"We really need a lookout after Lee bailed on us last night." Fred said.  
"Yeah, sure. Just tell me when you're ready."  
"Deal." They said together.

After dinner that day, it was time for my meeting with Professor Beleren. When I walked into his office, he was sitting on the chair behind his desk. There were balls of blue energy floating around his head. He must have saw me admiring this spectacle, because after a moment, he cleared his throat and asked me to sit down.

"How do you do that?" I asked, still amazed to the balls of energy.  
"By using a slightly different magic than what you are used to, Harry." He replied with his ever-skeptical voice.  
"Uhh. OK, I guess. How does it work?" I asked.  
"And that is why you are here tonight." He said. "The magic you saw me using just now was called mana magic. The magic you use is the magic that flows through your blood. Mana magic, however, is pulled by the user from the area around him. For instance, I can levitate you up to the ceiling if I would like."  
"Cool. Can I learn how to use it?"  
"Yes. That is why you are here. Harry, you are a planeswalker."  
"Great. First, you tell me I'm a jedi, whatever that is, in your letter. Now, you say I'm a planeswalker. Which is it?"  
"Surprisingly both. There are three types of magic. Fristly, there is Mana, what you saw me using earlier. With it, you can do this." As he said this, a ball of blue mana protruded from the palm of his hand and he threw it at me. It caught me and sent me sailing upwards. I fell back onto my chair painlessly as he continued speaking. "Then there is blood magic. Which is the type of magic you and the rest of this castle use. Then, there is the Force. It is a special type of magic that only Jedi can perform."  
"Uh, Professor Beleren, can you use the Force?"  
"Sadly, no. I cannot. Only a supremely powerful being can use all three types of magic. I only use mana. I do not carry a wand, as with mana I can do anything you can with a wand."  
"So, can you tell me what a planeswalker can do?"  
"Not right now. First, when I sent you that letter, I mentioned Jedi as your title. Now, when you went to bed that night, what color lightsaber did you dream of?"  
"Sorry? What's a lightsaber?"  
"Ah. I should have mentioned that. A lightsaber is a Jedi's weapon. It is made of pure energy. It can cut through any substance."  
"Um…" I said, wracking my brain for what he was talking about. "Blue. It was blue."  
"Then blue it is." He said. As he said this, he reached into the drawer of his desk and pulled out a long, metal cylinder.  
"What is that?"  
"That is a lightsaber. It is a Jedi's weapon." Jace said. He handed it to me and tested it's weight. I noticed it had a clip on the edge of the rod to hook to my belt, obviously. I looked at him, confused. He said: "Go on. You should know what to do."

He was right. I located a small red switch on the upper end of the lightsaber and flipped it. Instantly, a bright blue stream of light coming out the end of the rod.

"WHOA! What is this thing?"  
"That is the lightsaber's blade. It can cut through any substance. I thought I just explained that to you." The Professor said in his always-cool voice.  
"Yeah, but what I do with it?" I asked. I was still unsure of how to even hold the blade. He instructed me to flip the switch to shut it back off. I did so and he told me the lesson was over.  
I placed the blade on his desk and started to turn around when he told me to take it. I told him thanks for the weapon and walked back to the common room.


	6. Darth Voldemort

With my regular lessons with Professor Beleren and all of my classes, Halloween was approaching at a snails pace. On this particular day, I found myself in Jace's (although I don't call him that out loud, even to Ron and the twins) office, training with him.

"Good job Harry. Now, I want you to do that again. Just for practice." Jace said as I sat cross legged wearing a jedi robe which was actually quite comfortable. I concentrated on the book in front of me, and with the force, lifted it off the ground slowly. "Well done. I think we're done with force exercises for today, now it's time to run an errand for the both of us." He said  
"What is it? What errand?" I asked.  
"Today, we are going to the jedi temple to see that you get yourself a proper master."  
"Wait, why can't you teach me anymore?"  
"I still will, but not Jedi training. I will be instructing you on how to use blood magic," He said in his sever-cryptic voice. "You will need all the training you can get if you are to fulfill the pro- whoops, I said too much."  
"Fulfill the what?"  
"I said too much. I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you that."  
"Yeaah, ok." I replied. I was confused at what he said. But before I could think anymore, I felt the familiar dizziness that planeswalking gave me. When I opened my eyes again, we were standing in a strange place. "Whoa, what is this place?"  
"This is the Blind Eternities. Only the most powerful of beings can enter here and not get blown to bits."  
"Cool." I replied.

It was black everywhere, except for white light that littered the ground in columns, when I looked into one of them, I saw I place that was covered in streets and skyscrapers.  
From somewhere behind me, I heard Jace say: "Ravnica, the plane where I was born."  
"What? What's a Ravnica?" I asked. This earned a small chuckle from the professor when he replied:  
"Ravnica Harry, is a plane of existence, much like our own. The ability of a planeswalker is not just to pop in and out of any place on earth, but also to travel to other planes. The multiverse is made up of billions of these plains. Take the one to the left of Ravnica. That one is called Mirrodin." I looked to where he mentioned, and all I could see was sheets of metal and scrap piles. It looked as if that world was… "Made of metal? Yes."  
"Hey!"  
"What?"  
"Were you reading my mind just now?"  
"I prefer the term legilimency. But no, I was not. That place was actually made of metal. But that is not where we are going. Our destination is this one here." He pointed to one a few feet from Mirrodin's orb. What I saw was a planet that was black with red streaks what looked like lava flowing from a ring around a large point. "The planet is called Coruscant. It is much like Ravnica, both places are world where the whole planet is one large city. But there are more planets on this plane than Coruscant. But we will not be visiting those today."  
"So, how do we get in there?"  
"Smash it."  
"Wait, do what?"  
"Break the crystal ball. It will repair itself after we leave."  
"Uhh, ok." I said nervously as I stomped on the globe. Just as the shards started repairing themselves, I saw the image inside of it project above the shattered glass. Jace led me towards the image and stepped inside it. I felt the effects of planeswalking on my body and we reappeared in front of a building that was a large, off-white dome with spires projecting from the corners of it.  
"Whoa… what is this place?" I asked, amazed at what was in front of me.  
"This is the Jedi Temple." He said as he led me up the enormous white steps. When we walked into the spire to the left of where I stood originally, there was a large lobby and an elevator across from where we stood. The professor led me over to the elevator and pushed a button that had two lightsabers crossed like a large 'X'. The elevator took us all the way up to the top floor. It was made of glass so I could see out the other side. Jace was right, the place was an enormous city. He tapped my shoulder and I turned around to see a little green man sitting in a small chair. He had abnormally large ears, like those of an elf. I stepped out of the elevator to see that there were several other people, humans and humanoids alike, sitting in these chairs.  
"Ahh, Jace Beleren, here today, why are you, hmm?" The little green thing said.  
"I have young Harry Potter here, and I would like for him to have a proper master. I have taught him what little I know about the force. He can demonstrate for you if you like, Master Yoda."  
"That will not be necessary, Jace. I can sense the force rippling off of the boy like a tidal wave." This was not the green one speaking, but rather a short, red haired man with the short beard to match. "We shall find a master for him immediately. Any objections?" There were none. "Very well. Come young Harry, we will find a teacher for you."  
"Master Obi-Wan, wait." The green one said.  
"Yes Master Yoda?" He replied. Yoda, that was his name.  
"Teach him, you should. Since you took an apprentice, too long it has been."  
"It has only been four years."  
"Yes, four years too long. Hmm?"  
"Very well. Harry, I guess introductions are in order. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. And I will be your Jedi Master." He shook my hand, then the three of us took the elevator back down, but this time stopped about half-way and the door opened for us to climb out. When I stepped out of it, I saw a large field with green grass with wildflowers growing in small, scattered patches. Behind the field, there is a blue waterfall that starts at a balcony level. I guessed that it was for observing the training happening on the level below. Obi-Wan led me and Jace to the center of the empty field. Jace stopped short of where Obi-Wan had sat down by several yards.

"So Harry, where are you in your training?"  
"Umm…" I said, racking my brain. "I can lift up small things with the force and block blaster shots with my eyes closed."  
"Excellent. Mind if you demonstrate some of your training to me?" He asked. So I put my lightsaber on the grass in front of me and levitated it off the ground a few feet. "Well done. You've also mentioned you can block blaster bolts blindfolded?"  
"Yes… master." I said, trying out the word.  
"Well then, let's see."

The Dark Lord thought it would've been easier to find Dooku, but alas. He found himself standing behind him on a balcony that overlooked a n execution arena on the planet of Geonosis. Apparently, they like to kill things with bigger things here. This brought a sinister smile to the hooded man's face. He watched the Sith Apprentice for a moment longer before he saw a man with a purple lightsaber ignited running past him. The Jedi challenged the Sith to a battle to the death, but the latter refused and instead threw him into the arena with the force before the Jedi could bring his wits about him. The Dark Lord then walked up to behind Dooku and whispered sinisterly in his ear: _"How do you wish to die, Tyrannus?" _This brought a shudder running down the Sith's spine. It made Voldemort extremely pleased. The sith tensed and asked:

"Is that a challenge?"  
"Very much so." Voldemort said from a few paces back from where he was.

Dooku addressed the crowd this time and announced: "I have received another challenger. One who I am certain is more powerful than the first." This brought about several cheers. Tyrannus turned around and did a backflip off the balcony and into the arena below. The Dark Lord simply turned on his heel and apparrated to behind Dooku. The sith was moderately surprised by this. Just as he turned around, Voldemort uttered the killing curse, causing Dooku to perish before he even hit the ground. This caused an uproar all around the packed stadium in which resulted in all of the Geonosians to jump off their seats and charge into the stadium. Several Jedi standing guard on various balconies pulled their lightsabers from their cloaks and jumped down into the fray. Voldemort decided to stay for a while longer. Killing was one of the most enjoyable things in the Dark Lord's life to him, so he decided to enjoy it for a while longer. When he had slayed several Geonosians and Jedi alike, he apparrated back to his ship and told the pilot to take off for Coruscant.

When the ship landed on the Senate Building docking bay, he stepped out of the silver-plated ship and proceeded to Palpatine's office. It wasn't hard to find the second time.

When he entered the room, he bowed and said: "My lord, the deed is done. Darth Tyrannus is dead."  
"Well done, you have proven your might and your worthiness of succeeding him. You shall be henceforth known as Darth—"  
"Voldemort. That is the only name I will take."  
"Very well, you shall be known as Darth Voldemort." The Chancellor repeated himself to allow for his new apprentice's choice of name.

The weeks passed, and I grew more accustomed to my Hogwarts studies, my lessons on using mana with Jace, and my Jedi instruction with Obi-Wan, as he preferred to be known as.

Me, Ron, Riley, and Neville were walking towards diner. It was Halloween night and I was anxious to see what kind of feast there would be. Finally, the group ended up talking about Hermione, which I stayed out of.

"She's a know-it-all, selfish, stuck-up brat. No wonder she doesn't have any friends!" Ron said. Just then, Hermione ran passed us, sobbing violently.  
"Oh come on Ron, why'd you have to do that?" Riley asked angrily.  
"Hey, it's true!"  
"Is not! I've been with her since we were born, and Harry's known us since we were eight, so chill out Ron!" At that she ran off to see where her twin sister had gone to.  
"Riley has a point Ron, you know she has friends, well, I'd consider you one of them. And I think even Neville has talked to her every once and a while, right?"  
"Right." Neville replied, which left Ron in a stubborn mood until we started talking about the feast again, to which his eyes lit up.

It was finally supper time and the remainder of our group went down to the Great Hall to eat. We ate in, no, pigged-out would be a better term for what we were doing that night, silence for a while when Professor Quirrel came into the Hall screaming like a baby. Finally, he managed to yell:

"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! THERE'S A TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" Before passing out.

Duh-duh-dunnnn….. if you've either read the book or watched the movie, you'll see what happens next. And yes, before you post a review asking these questions, I've got answers:

Are you planning on spanning all 7 books with this story?: Yes

Will there be any parings?: Yes, but I won't spoil what they'll be just yet. If you review guessing the two correctly, then I'll say.

Hey, that reminds me: The review box down there is getting a little lonely, so chat with it, eh?


	7. A troll, Fluffy, and a Spellbook

After Professor Quirrel dropped down, the only thing I could think of was Hermione. I told Ron and Riley about the situation and we slipped away unnoticed. When we found the girl's bathroom, but the troll had already beaten us to it.

"Hey!" I yelled as I grabbed a splinter of wood that was laying on the ground that apparently got there by the oaf smashing a stall. I threw the thing at him and when it hit him on the head, he turned around. "Ok, I've got an idea. Riley, you get Hermione and bring her outside the door. Ron, distract the troll for a minute."  
"Got it." Riley said as she snuck around the troll and crawled under the stalls. Ron nodded silently and went the other way, yelling and throwing wood at his head. I focused on the trolls club and extended my hand towards it. The club floated up from the troll's hand out of its grip, I brought it up a considerable distance above its head before I decided to let it fall. I let go of the club by relaxing with the Force, and the troll's weapon fell onto its head.

The troll started getting faint and fell over from the blow the club gave him. It seemed to knock it unconscious, because it did not get back up to try and fight again. "Wicked… I think you owe me an explanation…" Ron said hardly above a whisper as some of the faulty came running into the bathroom.

I could see McGonagall, Quirrel, Jace, and Snape from where I was standing at the troll's head after I turned around. Ron turned around to meet the teachers. "I demand to know what happened here." Professor McGonagall said harshly.  
"Well, you see… we came here to get H—" I started, but Hermione interrupted me.  
"It was my fault Professor." She said, re-entering the room. "I came here looking for the troll, thinking I could take it on, and I was wrong. My sister, Harry, and Ron saved me."  
"Well then, I suppose I should take ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger. But, seeing as a group of first years took on a fourty-foot Mountain Troll and lived to tell the tale, I'll have to award five point to Gryffindor, each, for sheer dumb luck!" McGonagall said, then walked out of the room. Snape limped out of the room, and Quirrel followed, leaving only Jace left with us.  
"So, tell me, how exactly did you knock out the thing?" He asked, slightly curious.  
Then Ron exploded. "It was the coolest thing I ever saw, Professor. Girls, did you see it? It was totally wicked! Like, he just reached out his hand, without a wand or anything, he just reached his hand out, and grabbed the club from the troll, just like that! And then he dropped it down on the troll's head like he was really holding it, it was SO COOL!" Ron was panting heavily after this outburst, but he had an excited-looking smile on his face.  
"Well then Harry, ten points to Gryffindor for putting your Jedi training into action." Jace said before walking off.  
"Jedi training? Is that what you've been doing with him twice a week?" Hermione asked.  
"Yeah. I'll show you later, but right now, let's get back to the feast."

The next morning, news of how I took out the troll spread like wildfire. Multiple groups of people had come up to me and ask if it was true, to which I merely suggested that I did indeed knock out the troll single-handedly, to which Ron joked about, saying it was literal. (which it was)

I assumed it was because of his pig-headed arrogance, but Draco Malfoy of all people, wanted to speak with me.  
"Potter, I challenge you to a wizards duel. Tonight at midnight, in the trophy room." He said. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. "What's wrong, Potter, don't know what a wizard's duel is?"  
"Of course he does. I'm his second. Who's yours?"  
"I choose Crabbe. Be there Potter, or else." He strutting off in his normal fashion.  
"What's a Wizard's Duel?" I asked Ron.  
"Exactly what it sounds like, mate." Ron replied.  
"What's a second?"  
"In case you die, I cover for you." This made my spine give an involuntary shudder.  
"So, can I use the force on him?"  
"What?"  
"Like I did last night on the troll." At this remark, Ron's face lit up like a Christmas Tree.  
"Sure, I'd love to see him squirm around with an unseen force… That'd be brilliant."  
"Ron, that's what it's called, really." We both had a good laugh at this, but continued eating relatively in silence for the rest of breakfast.

The rest of the day passed surprisingly quickly, mostly in anticipation for the duel against Malfoy. When it was time to leave, me and Ron slipped out of out beds and climbed silently down the stairs. Much to my surprise, Hermione was waiting for us on a couch.

"Come on boys, you can't be doing this!" Hermione pleaded.  
"No, I need to do this. Someone needs to put that brat in his place. And now's the perfect chance."  
"Well, if you're going off on an exciting adventure and whooping some pureblood butt, I'm coming too."  
"Really?" I asked, clearly in disbelief.  
"Watch me." She said mockingly as she slid out of the portrait-hole.

We walked silently to the trophy room without incident, but when we got there, it was empty. I suggested we wait a few more minutes for Malfoy to arrive. We waited ten more minutes longer when our silence was cut short by a tabby cat running into the room.

"Mrs. Norris, shoo!" I whispered harshly, hoping that it would make her go away. But instead, she got onto one of the shelves and knocked down a trophy which made a large, metallic, clanking sound.  
"Mrs. Norris? Is that you?" I heard Filch yell from outside the door.  
"Quick, run!" I whispered as we ran out the other door. Filch walked into the room just as we were closing the door.  
"Ah, you've found me some students out of bed. Good work kitty." He said as we closed the door and ran. He chased us into a long, dusty hallway with a large door on the end of it.

I realized we didn't have another way out, I tried the handle. "It's locked!" I pulled out my lightsaber and cut a small circle large enough to climb through and ushered them inside. Ron's eyes were as big as the moon as he watched me do this, even Hermione seemed moderately impressed.  
"Well, you could've just used the unlocking charm on it." She said before climbing into the hole.

"Uh, Harry… there's a reason this door's locked…"  
"Why?" I asked as I peered into the hole I cut into the door. I saw a large, black, three-headed dog staring at me with one of it's heads. "Guys, quick, get out!" I said before the dog started barking and snapping at them. They climbed out as fast as they could and I sealed the door shut with a _Reparo_ charm. We ran back to the common room, careful to make sure that Filch avoided us.

When we got back, we all flopped onto the couches in the common room.

"What was that thing?" I asked.  
"I dunno, it was huge… Harry, how did you do that with that thing?"  
"What thing?"  
"The stream-of-blue-light-attached-to-metal-thing?"  
"Oh, you mean my lightsaber?" I asked.  
"Yeah, how did you do that?"  
"It's a Jedi's weapon. Made of pure energy and capable of cutting through anything."  
"Anything?"  
"Yeah," I said. Ron was again in silent awe of my newfound abilities until Hermione had a realization.  
"Boys, maybe we should talk to Hagrid tomorrow about the dog. And did you see what it was standing on?"  
"I was too busy looking at its heads rather than its feet!"  
"Well then you should have been paying more attention"  
"That's a little hard considering that the thing had three huge heads!"  
"ENOUGH!" I shouted, hoping they would stop bickering. "Well I'm bushed, goodnight guys."  
"Goodnight." Hermione and Ron said together. Not long after I got changed into my pajamas and lay down in my bed, I saw Ron walk into the room and noisily fall onto the bed, sleeping instantly. I decided this when he snored a moment after. I tried to get some sleep, wondering what I would say to Hagrid the next morning.

The next morning was one that I had the day off of classes, thanks to Dumbledore, to study mana with Jace and my Jedi training with Obi-Wan. I put on my brown Jedi robes instead of the black Hogwarts ones and grabbed my lightsaber, not needing my books, I headed down to breakfast. When I sat down in my usual place, Hermione asked what was up about the brown robes. I told them they were Jedi robes, to which Ron asked if he could demonstrate what I could do after breakfast. So we scarfed down our meal and went down to the front field. When we got there, I drew my lightsaber out and did a backflip over Ron and landed behind him.

"Whoa…" Ron said.  
"Ron, you are just starstruck by everything about the Jedi, huh?"  
"Hey, I can't help it, it all just too cool!"  
"That's alright. Hey, I got an idea." I said. "Maybe we can get Professor Beleren to take us to Coruscant on Saturday for you to see what I've been learning."  
"Coruscant?"  
"It's where I go to train."  
"Oh, holy… look at the time! I've got to go Harry, I'm gonna be late!" Ron yelled as he ran back to the castle.  
"Alright, see ya later!" I yelled back at him as I closed my lightsaber. I looked at my watch, I still had time before Jace wanted me in his office. So I walked down to Hagrid's hut to ask him what the three-headed dog was guarding.

Whenever I got there, Hagrid happily greeted me and asked what I came down for. "Hagrid, I was wondering if you knew anything about three-headed dogs."  
"How do you know about Fluffy?"  
"Fluffy? That thing has a name?"  
"Well of course he's got a name, he's mine!"  
"He was standing on a trap-door, you have any idea what it was guarding?"  
"That, is a secret between Albus Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel… I said too much, I should not have said that."  
"Nicholas Flamel? Who's that?"  
"I've said too much. Isn't it time for you to start headin' to class?" Hagrid said as I turned around and started walking up to the castle happily. I figured out what I wanted to know. Now I just need to find out who Nicholas Flamel is.

Jace and me planeswalked from the Blind Eternities back into his office, my Jedi training over for the day. We had eaten lunch on Coruscant with Obi-Wan so I wasn't interested in going into the Great Hall. Jace had decided to start teaching me how to use mana.

"Harry, sit down," he instructed as he took a seat on the ground. I followed suit and he continued: "There are five kinds of mana. There is white mana, the mana of order, peace, and law. There is blue mana, the mana of knowledge and deception. There is black mana, the mana of corruption and decay. There is red mana, the mana of chaos and disorder. And there is green mana, the mana of life and growth. The mana fuels the kind of magic I use. If the mana of a certain color is drained in one area, it will have to regenerate itself before it is able to be used again. If you reach out with your planeswalker's spark, you can feel the mana and how much of it is around us. Try it." So I did, I felt a great amount of blue mana in the room, but everywhere else in the castle, the amounts stayed the same.  
"There's a lot of blue mana in here."  
"That is because I channeled the room's mana to fit my needs."  
"So, you use only blue mana?"  
"That's right."  
"So, which colors will I be able to use?"  
"That depends on what types you decide to use."  
"Well, white and blue sound most interesting…"  
"Then, white and blue it is. I will be able to teach you the blue mana no problem, but I will need to go to another plane to pick up a book on using white mana for next class."  
"Ok. So, where do we start?"  
"We start at basic summonings. Now, I'm going to show you a picture, and I want you to concentrate on it, to see if you can summon the creature."He pulled a photo from his desk and showed it to me. It looked like a little man on wings and had big, pointy ears. I concentrated on the image like he said and it appeared from out of nowhere, flying right in front of me.  
"Hey! It worked! Can I name it? Or will it be a different faerie every time?"  
"Yes, it will be the same one every time, so feel free to name it. Now, you have added the little faerie to your spellbook."  
"Spellbook?"  
"Yes, whenever you successfully cast a spell, it automatically goes into your spellbook. It only gets entered the first time you cast a spell. I made you one ahead of time, for when you needed it. Let me go get it." He said as he got up from the ground and walked over to his desk and picked up what looked like a picture album and walked back over to where I was sitting. "Here you go." It was a photo album. The cover said: HARRY J. POTTER'S SPELLBOOK in gold embroidered letters. I opened it up and there was the picture of the faerie that was in Jace's hand and flying around my head in large, lazy circles.  
"Sooo, is there a limit to how many spells this thing can hold?"  
"As many as you want it to. As soon as you look at a picture, you will instantly remember what the spell does in case you forget it."  
"Wow, that's a really neat feature."  
"Thank you. It was one of my improvements I made to the design of it."

The rest of the class passed without learning new spells, much to my dismay at the time. But by the time it was finished it was supper time. So I went down to the Great Hall to eat. Over the meal I told them about Nicholas Flamel. They both didn't have any idea who he was. Hermione said she would research him. I decided I would too. After the meal, I went up to the dormitory and fell asleep instantly in my bed, without bothering to change or remove the lightsaber from my belt.


	8. GIVE ME THE STONE!

A/N: I hope I didn't go overboard with the whole spellbook thing, but I felt it was necessary for the plot of the story. Also, I do not own: Mana Leak, Cryptic Command, or Path to Exile. Those are Magic: the Gathering card names designed and created by the geniuses at Wizards of the Coast. Not me. Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, on with the story!

With my Jedi training, Hogwarts studies, and Jace's private lessons, I actually got little free time until Christmas. In that time I managed to learn a few more spells. There was one called Mana Leak, which made a spell stop in midair and had to be prodded along by the caster, Cryptic Command, which fizzled a spell in midair and knocked the caster out, this one was a little harder to learn and a bit more mana intensive, but it was well worth it. And I even managed to learn a white spell: Path to Exile, it planeswalked the target to wherever you were thinking of, and it also gave your allies a temporary mana boost. The time I spent on holiday break consisted of playing wizard's chess with Ron, training with Obi-Wan and Jace, and researching Nicholas Flamel. I found nothing about Flamel before Christmas morning, but I had a feeling it would be in the restricted section. Ron woke me up with a shout:

"IT'S CHRISTMAS HARRY! WAKE UP!" I reluctantly woke up and looked at my watch. It read 5:30 AM, much too early for me to be up. But I had to make an exception as it was Christmas and I had the day off from my training. When I walked down the stairs and went into the common room. Ron was happily chewing away on a handful of every-flavored beans. I took a seat on the armchair when Ron told me there was something for me under there. I pulled it out. It was addressed to me from Mrs. Weasley, inside the box was, coincidentally, a navy blue sweater with a gold "H" embroidered on it. There was also a few candies in the box. I opened a chocolate frog to find Dumbledore's card inside. I read the back of it and saw that Dumbledore was buddys with Nicholas Flamel.

"Ron, I've found Nicholas Flamel."  
"Really? Lemme see!" I gave the card to him and he read the contents of the card. "Whoa, that narrows it down a bit. Hey! There's something else under here for you!"  
"Really? I wasn't expecting anything from the Dursleys…"  
"Here, open it up!" I took the plain white box and untied the green bow from it, inside there was a soft, brown cloak. "Here, put it on, let's see how you look in it." Ron suggested, so I did. Instantly, he dropped his box of beans and said the thing was an invisibility cloak. I looked down at myself to find that my body was completely gone, except for my head.  
"Whoa! My body's gone!" I shouted, completely ill-prepared for a moment like this. My face took on a mischievous smile when I said "I bet we could check the restricted section with this thing."  
"For what?" Ron asked, oblivious to what I was getting at.  
"For books on Nicholas Flamel, of course, what else would I go in there for?" Just then, Fred and George came walking down the stairs from the bedrooms. They quietly tried to sneak out of the common room without anyone noticing, but I ruined their fun when I asked, "Where are you two going?" I felt both of them stop in their tracks and came over to where I was sitting, the cloak put back into it's box.

"We were going pull that prank we've been planning for months," Fred said.  
George continued: "You know, the one where we turn Mrs. Norris into a bunny rabbit?"  
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I casted Path to Exile on my gifts, sending them back onto my bed. I did the same for Ron and we slipped our shoes on and followed the twins.

"Thought you should know Harry, we've modified the spell a bit to make sure just the cat's tail remains unchanged, so it'll look like a rabbit with a cat's tail."  
"Sweet." I said, following them into a secret passage that led downstairs. We found the cat in a passageway outside the Trophy Room. I summoned the faerie, which I discovered was a girl and accordingly named it Radha. I heard about the name from Jace, the original Rahda was a Warlord from the plane of Dominaria, possibly the most powerful one of them all. Fred and George was amazed at this, so I told them I'd explain it later. Me and Ron took up guard posts in the doors and Fred cast the spell. Instantly, the cat changed into a pink rabbit with a grey cat tail. I almost vocalized my amusement, but I decided that it would be best to stay quiet. We ran back to the common room and sat back down on the couch.

"Wow! It worked! That was hilarious!" I nearly shouted when we got back.  
"Yeah, it definitely was something." Ron agreed.

Fred and George had smug smiles on their faces when together, they said: "Brilliant."  
"We're gonna have to thank Riley for giving us that idea later." Fred said.  
"Yeah, that was awesome!" George agreed.

"That was fun. I'm going to the library guys, OK?"  
"Sure." The twins said together.  
"Alright." Ron said

I went upstairs to get dressed, when I came down, I went straight to the door and started heading down to the library. When I got there, I went to the "Famous Wizards and Witches" section. I grabbed a book that was on Dumbledore. I skimmed the table of contents for anything that I could use to help me find Nicholas Flamel. There it was. There was a chapter titled: "Relations with Nicholas Flamel" I flipped to the page the chapter started on and read the first page. It said that Nicholas Flamel was the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone. I closed the book and ran back to the common room as fast as I could. I needed to get an owl to the twins. I needed to tell Ron.

"RON!" I yelled as I ran into the common room. He was sitting on one of the couches munching on a handful of every-flavored beans. "RON! I found Nicholas Flamel!"  
"So, who was he?"  
"He's the maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

"The what?"  
"The Sorcerer's Stone! It could turn any metal into gold, and produce the Elixir of Life. That's why Snape was limping when we took down the troll, he was trying to get past Fluffy. You know he used to be one of Voldemort's followers, right? So he tried to get the stone for himself to give to Voldemort."

"Who'd have thought, huh?"

"That's what I was thinking. But the question now is, how do we stop him? He's probably gonna try again, and we have to be ready."

The months passed, Hermione did some research on three-headed dogs and discovered that they sleep like a baby when you play music to them. We decided to check on Fluffy once a day until the school-year ended to make sure Snape didn't try anything. Then one day, Riley came running into the Great Hall to where we were sitting and whispered harshly to us:

"There's a harp in Fluffy's room playing itself." She didn't have to say anymore. Me, Ron, and Hermione were on our feet before she could finish speaking. She grabbed a fried chicken leg before running out with us. We ran up to the third floor into Fluffy's room and opened the trap door and jumped into the hole. I landed on something soft. It instantly grabbed onto me in several places and I struggled to get out. I tried to get to my lightsaber, but I couldn't reach far enough.

"Ron! Can you reach my lightsaber?"

"I'm trying, I can't get it!"

But just then, Hermione figured out the puzzle, "Everyone, stay calm, this is Devil's Snare. Stay calm."

"Stay calm? How am I supposed to stay calm with this thing strangling me?"  
"It won't strangle you if you stay calm. You'll just sink to the ground underneath it." I tried what Hermione suggested. I fell to the ground underneath the vines; Riley shortly followed. Ron, however, was still struggling with the plant. I was pulling my lightsaber from my belt when he finally kept calm and fell through. We proceeded to what looked like a giant chessboard. When we tried to cross the other row of pawns, they drew their swords and blocked our path.

"So… what now?" Riley asked.

"We're gonna have to play." Ron replied as he turned around and started walking towards the black side of the chessboard. I noticed there were several spots missing pieces. Ron instructed us to fill them in. I ended up as a bishop, Riley the queen, Hermione as a rook, and Ron mounted an empty saddle and took on the role of knight. The game proceeded normally, both sides trading pieces. Ron purposely made sure none of us moved unless we absolutely had to. After a while, Ron saw an opening. He told us his plan and I tried to talk him out of it, but he went along with it anyway. What he did was sacrificed himself so that I could put the king in checkmate. I made the move that Ron suggested and sliced the queen diagonally around her middle section and force pushed the top section from the legs and called checkmate on the king. He dropped his sword and instantly I ran to Ron. I saw his leg did not look right, I figured it was broken. Riley volunteered to stay here with him while me and Hermione proceeded to the door on the other side of the board. When we opened the door, there were hundreds of winged keys flying around. We went to the other door when we found it was locked. I grabbed my lightsaber and cut a hole in the door.

"We don't have time for this. We need to go as fast as we can!" Beyond this door was a table with six potions lined up in a row on a small table. There was a piece of parchment there. Hermione opened it up and read it to herself.

After a while, she said "It's a riddle. We have to figure out which one is the one that will let us pass through the black fire." I let her contemplate this for a while. Several minutes passed, and finally she said "It's this one right here, but there's only enough for one of us."

"Well then, you get back to Ron and Riley and I'll go on."

"Good luck Harry."

"Thanks." I replied as she ran off to help with Ron. "Here goes nothing." I said to myself as I drank the liquid inside the small vial. Instantly, my body felt like ice and the fire felt like nothing at all. I passed through the door behind the flame, walked down the passageway it led me to and saw Professor Quirrel standing in front of a mirror.

"Ah, Potter. Nice of you to join us."

"What do you want?"

"The Stone, of course. And you will get it for me."

"But this isn't right. Snape's supposed to try and get the stone, not you."

"You thought wrong, boy. Snape was trying to protect it from me."  
"So, Snape really is on our side?" I said, mostly to myself.

"That's right. Now, GET ME THE STONE!"

"Never!" I half-yelled as I jumped down the stairs.

"Come here boy!" Quirrel yelled. I surveyed the mana in the room and discovered that there was not much blue mana, so I could not easily use it here. So much for that plan. I walked towards him to where I was standing next to him in front of the mirror. "What do you see?"

What I saw surprised me, I was reaching into the inside pocket of my Jedi robes and pulled out a red, glowing rock.

"I-I see myself training with Master Yoda."

"_The boy lies."_ A strange, snake-like voice said.

"Tell me what you see!" Quirrel demanded again.

"Nah, I'm good. See you tomorrow in class." I said, running up the stairs as fast as I could. Before I could leave the room, the top level burst into flames. Then Quirrel did something I never expected, he pulled out a red lightsaber and attacked. I drew mine and blocked his strike just in time. I counter-attacked with a high slash followed by a strike to the legs. He dodged both of them with strength and agility that I never expected of the turban-clad Professor. He used the force to push me to the ground. When I tried to spring back up, he held me there. The voice commanded Quirrel to let him be face to face with me.

"Master, you are not strong enough."

"_I have strength enough for this_." The serpentine voice said again, the professor took off his turban to reveal a face on the back of his head.

"Voldemort…"

"_Yes, Potter. I have found you, and I will take the stone, whether you like it or not."_

"Never!" I yelled, but Voldemort found the stone with the force and lifted it from my robe pocket. I tried to pull it back, but it kept going. Finally, I broke free of Quirrel's invisible grasp and lunged for him. I grabbed his hand and tried to pull the stone from it; but I didn't have to pull hard. His hand started crumbling when I touched it. I grabbed onto his other hand and his whole body crumbled to dust within seconds. The fire subsided not long after this and I started walking out. I found Ron and the twins on the chessboard. Ron had fainted, I levitated him with the force and walked out of the dungeon, and boy, was Path to Exile useful now. I was glad I learned the spell because the devil's snare was ten feet above us on the ground. I brought us up to Fluffy's room with the spell. The harp was still playing, to which I was eternally grateful. I brought Ron to the hospital wing and set him gently down on the bed. Madame Pomfrey asked what happened to him, to which I replied that he broke his leg. She told me to go up to bed immediately and that she would take care of the rest. I cast Path to Exile on myself, sending me up to the common room corridor. I told the Fat Lady the password and entered. Both sets of twins were wondering how Ron was doing.

"He's fine, Madame Pomfrey's taking care of him. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed." Everyone bid me goodnight and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The closing feast was a week later, and Gryffindor ended up in first place because of what we did to stop Quirrel. Ron got us 50 points for an excellently played chess game. Hermione got us 50 points for calmness in the face of pressure. Riley got us 30 points for assisting Ron. I got us 20 points for ratting out a rogue Professor. I was still happy that I had stopped Voldemort from getting the stone. When I handed it over to Dumbledore the next morning, he hinted at it being destroyed, so I assume that's what was done to it. Ron was on crutches a few days later and was walking around with little difficulty.

The ride back home was fairly uneventful, filled with Exploding Snap (a game that Fred and George taught me) and candy eating. When the train pulled into King's Cross Station, I saw Uncle Vernon immediately. I bid the Weasley's good-bye for the summer and walked towards him. He greeted me with a grunt and a swinging of his arm motioning to follow him.

The summer proceeded normally, that is, until a little green house elf showed up in my room…

Duh-duh-duuuuuuh…. I really am evil, aren't i? Ok, I admit I think I went a little overboard with the Path to Exile uses, but it was essential for the story with how I prevented Harry's injury. I took it out because I thought it was not needed, if you can prove me otherwise, send me a review or a PM.


	9. Summer break, a sith, and a Dobby

Sorry for the delay, I was a bit busy with things and I hadn't had time to sit down and write this story. I took advantage of the delay and revised it a few extra times. Hope you all enjoy!

"What the hell are you? And what are you doing here?" I said in a harsh whisper. Uncle Vernon was having an important business meeting downstairs and I was supposed to be quiet and "pretend that I don't exist;" I took the opportunity to meditate until this green, pointy-eared (well, for lack of a better term,) _thing _showed up.

"Dobby is being a house elf. Dobby came here to warn Master Harry Potter to not return to Hogwarts next year."  
"Why not? Hogwarts is my only home. I can't just not go!" I said quieter.  
"No sir! You musn't be going! There are dark things happening there this year." After he said this, he started banging his head against my bedpost.  
"Dobby, what are you doing?"  
"Dobby is punishing himself. He is not supposed to be revealing his master's secrets."  
"Well, I forbid you to punish yourself in my house." I said. He apparently took this the wrong way and wailed at the top of his lungs.  
"No Dobby, please don't cry! We're supposed to be quiet! Not a sound please!" Dobby stopped crying after this and reduced his noise to a few sniffles. "Now, what's wrong?"  
"Harry Potter musn't go back to Hogwarts for another year! There are dark things happening there. Terrible things!"  
"Who's your master?"  
"Dobby isn't supposed to be revealing master Malfoy's secre—oops." Dobby said as he snapped his fingers and apparrated away.  
"So Dobby is Malfoy's elf? This changes things." I didn't have long to think. I heard a crash and a yell coming from down-stairs. Instantly I grabbed my lightsaber from off my desk and ran downstairs. When I got into the living room, Aunt Petunia had a cake smashed on her face and there was Dobby fighting a bald woman wielding two red lightsabers. Another sith? I thought as I activated my lightsaber and jumped into the fray. Together with Dobby's magic was enough to chain her up against the wall and obtain her lightsabers in a matter of minutes.

"Who are you?" I asked angrily.  
"Asajj Ventress, a Sith assassin trained by Count Dooku, who was defeated by Darth Voldemort not long after I became a knight. I suppose you would know that." The bald-headed woman spat.  
"I knew Voldemort was a sith, but he killed Dooku? For what?"  
"So that he could train under Sidious. He wanted an advantage over this world when he would mount an invasion, so he was training until you killed him."  
"So, you are the new sith apprentice then. I have half a mind to kill you now, but I'll let you live. I suppose you'll be wanting your weapons back." I said as I used the force to attach the woman's weapons onto her belt. I dew some of the white mana out of the room and cast Path to Exile on her, sending her to Coruscant.

Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Dudley, Dudley, and the Grunnings representative were all in shock at what they just saw. I told them to stay put as I sent a letter to Jace with Hedwig. I told her it was extremely important, so she would go at top speed. About ten minutes of waiting later, Jace walked into the front door and motioned to me to walk towards him.

"Harry, I got your letter. I do believe this is very important, we should go now."  
"Thanks. We need to make sure he doesn't leave." I said, pointing to the representative.  
"I see." Wordlessly, Jace motioned me to my side and I grabbed his arm. I figured he cast a spell silently because he didn't do anything else except planeswalk into the blind eternities to quickly locate the Coruscant orb. We smashed it and planeswalked into the Jedi temple. We got onto the elevator and went into my training room.

"Master Jace, Harry, what brings you here today?" Obi-Wan, who was meditating on the ground, asked curiously.  
"Harry staved off an attack of a sith woman who calls herself…"  
"Asajj Ventress." I finished for him.  
"I have reason to believe that she succeeded Voldemort as Sidious' apprentice after Harry finished him off. Harry has told me that she trained under Count Dooku and obtained her knight status shortly before Dooku was killed by Voldemort."  
"I see," the Jedi replied. "This changes things. Sidious may want to build up an army from her. You'd better watch yourself Harry, she could try to attack you again. Especially during school."  
"Thank you for the advice master, I will keep a wary eye out for her during the upcoming school year." I said with a small bow. The Jedi traditions were a bit complicated to learn, especially the thing that makes me wear my hair in a small pony-tail until I become a knight. I don't mind it, but I do find it a bit strange. We finished talking to him and exchanged good-byes as Jace took hold of me and planeswalked back into the Dursley home. Believe me, when Jace said it wasn't an exact science, I never really understood that until now. We were on the roof of the Granger's home. It wasn't a big deal, but it shows how far off you can get when planeswalking. I jumped off the roof with Jace on my tail and walked back into the house. The Dursleys and the other man were seemingly frozen in their chairs, I tried getting them to move, but they wouldn't budge until Jace cast another spell on them, allowing them to move freely. Instantly, Aunt Petunia fell to the floor and crawled over to me before standing up in front of me.

"Harry, who was that woman?" She asked. I told her I would explain later. I walked over to the man and asked him where he lived. He told me the address and Jace modified his memory to let him remember that he made the contract and I cast Path to Exile on him to send him back to his home. I sat down at the kitchen table and motioned for the Dursleys to sit down. Once again, they asked me to explain who the sith was, so I started at the beginning, when I first sat down with Jace for our first mana lesson. I finally ended with Ventress attacking Dobby.

"Whoa, Harry, I didn't know you did that at your school." Dudley said, amazed.  
"Well, it's only me, nobody else can do that there." I replied.  
"Wow, that makes it even cooler."  
"Any other questions?" I asked.

"Yes, How come you can use the mada or whatever you called it outside of school? Dumblydoor or whatever said that you couldn't." Uncle Vernon asked.  
"I'm not allowed to use my wand outside of school, which leaves me free to train with Obi-Wan and Jace year-round."  
"I see…" Uncle Vernon said thoughtfully.  
"Anything else?" Nobody said anything. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed. Because, believe it or not, fending off insane sith women is rather tiring." I said as went upstairs and dropped onto my bed. I fell asleep instantly and woke up the next morning around noon. I took a shower and went downstairs for breakfast, much to my surprise, Aunt Petunia was busy in the kitchen fixing lunch for everyone. When I went to take over for her, she told me to sit down and wait for the food to be finished. I was very surprised at this, but I took it as a thank-you for saving their lives. I sat down and a few moments afterwards Aunt Petunia came in with a pot of vegetable soup. There were already bowls on the table so she started serving everyone, including me, a nice portion. She sat down and everyone started digging into the soup. It was actually quite good. Much better than even I could do it, having been cooking breakfast and dinner for the last six years. After I was done eating, i kept seated until Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were finished eating. I wanted to talk to them.

"So, Aunt Petunia, why did you cook lunch? I could have done it." I said tentatively.  
"Because Harry, after that crazy woman attacked last night, me and Vernon got to thinking how much work we've been making you do. So, as a proper thank-you, we've decided to lighten your chore load for you. You no longer have to cook, clean the kitchen, or bring out the garbage." I was suspicious at first for god knows what reason, but I decided they were telling the truth. I was speechless, eleven years I had lived here and not once was I given even a break for one day, but here they are, cutting my workload nearly in half. "Thank you…" Was all they could say. I guessed it was too much for Aunt Petunia, because she started crying and moved into the chair next to me and grabbed me in a vice-hug.

"I'm so sorry we treated you this way all these years. I don't know what got into us. After Lilly, bless her heart, got her letter from Hogwarts, I had always hated the Wizarding world, mostly out of jealousy. I knew that I would never get to go and that just made me angrier. Harry, I hope you can forgive us for the way we treated you."  
"It's ok, Aunt Petunia. I forgive you." I replied. She couldn't say anything for a while longer. She let go of me and looked at me, tears running down her face. She got up and went into her bedroom and didn't come out. I guessed she was thinking it over. After a few moments of sitting there, I went into my room to retrieve my meditation stones and went outside. I placed them in a circle around me and I cleared my mind. I sat levitated in the air with the stones circling around me for a few moments before I heard a voice saying:

"Harry?" I broke my concentration and fell onto my back and turned around. It was Hermione. She took a few steps forward and sat down in the grass in front of where I had. "Hey, last night while I was getting ready for bed, I heard quite a commotion coming from your house, I wanted to know what it was and if you're ok."  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about." I collected the rocks and walked to the door, but she stopped me by grabbing onto my ankle.  
"There's something you're not telling me, now out with it." She said as she stood up.  
I sighed as I motioned for her to come inside. I placed them on the table and Hermione took a seat across from me. "It was a sith attack. I'm fine. A house elf popped into my room and helped me. What I did obviously changed my Aunt and Uncle's mind about things and have decided to treat me at least a little better."  
"Yeah, I wondered why your aunt was actually friendly to me and your uncle didn't grunt at me for once, he was civil and pointed me to the back door with kind words. I couldn't believe it myself, but it makes sense now."  
"Don't worry, it freaked me out too." I replied.  
"Definitely something I didn't expect."

The rest of the summer past without event, I went to the Weasleys for the week preceding the start of the school year. I even got Dudley to do a few mental exercises with me, and he even seemed friendly when he's not bullying or punching me.

A/N: Phew, finally, I took a long, unexpected break, but here I am! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I expect some reviews!


	10. A stunt worthy of the Marauders!

**It's been a few weeks since the attack. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had "come to their senses" and repealed every privilege they gave me, claiming I put a spell on them. I didn't think it would last long anyway, so I was prepared for it. School starts up again next Monday, but today we're going to the Burrow, as Ron called his house, for the weekend. While I'm there, I plan to go shopping for my school supplies in Diagon Alley. My acceptance letter from Hogwarts seemed a bit strange. All of the books were by the same person: Gilderoy Lockhart. I was suspicious for a bit but when Hermione told me about the things he did, I guessed it was alright. Arthur Weasley came with Ron, Fred, and George to pick up me and the girls. His vehicle was an old, sky blue Chevrolet with a magically expanded trunk. When we got all of our things loaded into the back of the car and climbed in, he drove down the road for a while and the car lifted off into the air. Me and the girls were shocked about this, but Mr. Weasley reassured us that this was normal.** "**Yeah, don't worry, Harry. This is a flying car." George stated.  
"Really?" I asked. "I didn't know that they could do that."  
"Heh, it's magic. Muggle's can't makes cars fly." Fred replied. The rest of the trip to the Burrow was relatively quiet, with a few jokes from Fred or George inbetween. The house looked extremely lopsided; like the contractors didn't know what a blueprint was. However, it seemed… cozy. I don't know how else to explain it. When we walked in, Ron re-introduced us to his mother, Molly Weasley. She gave me one of those infamous "Molly Weasley bone-crushing-hugs" that the twins talk about all the time. She showed me upstairs and that I would be spending the weekend in Ron's bedroom with him. We walked up the winding staircase three stories up. I used the force to levitate my trunk up to the room; much to Ron's amazement. I would seriously have to give him a few lessons, just to see if he had the ability. We didn't have much time before supper to get ready, so we just washed our hands and sat at the magically-expanded table and watched everyone else troop towards the kitchen.** ** -BREAK-** **The next morning, I awoke to one of Mrs. Weasleys yells for us to get out of bed and eat before we had to leave. I didn't have any time for my morning exercise just then, so I resolved to do it during the car ride to Diagon Alley. I ate breakfast as fast as I could and got ready to leave. Just as I was getting ready to walk outside to the car, Mr. Weasley grabbed onto my shoulder and spun me around.** "**We're using floo powder today Harry." He said in a confident tone.  
"What's floo powder?" I asked, wondering why Hermione hadn't gone over it in her dozens of lectures she had given me over the summer.  
"Come see. I'll show you." He said as he walked over to the fireplace, where everyone else was crowded around.** "**Now Harry dear, what you're going to do is grab a handful of this floo powder, throw it into the fireplace and call out exactly where you want to go. Watch, Percy's going first." She motioned over to the fireplace where Percy grabbed a handful of black powder out of a holster next to it.  
"DIAGON ALLEY!" He cried out, a little too loud. Instantly, flames shot up and he stepped into them. After the flames died down, he was gone.  
"But… how did he…?" I asked, confused.  
"Magic, mate!" George cried out. He went next, copying Percy in every way. He too vanished in the green flames.  
"Alright Harry, you next." I took a gulp, grabbed a small handful of the stuff, and cried out: "Diagonally!" When I landed, I was expecting to see George and Percy, but what I did see was a poorly lit shop with several strange artifacts lining the shelves. I heard bells jingle behind me and I took cover inside a cabinet. Who walked in was two people I never expected to see in a shop such as this: Draco Malfoy and his father, Lucifer or whatever Draco said it was, I really can't remember now. Draco was obviously interested in a small hand. The clerk said that it was enchanted that, when given a candle, would give light to the holder of the hand. I waited inside the cabinet for a while longer, after the Malfoy's left and the clerk was nowhere to be seen. I slipped out and exited the store as quietly as I could. I was in a strange place. There were oddly dressed wizards and witches walking everywhere. I wandered around for a moment before running into someone accidentally. I looked up and saw Hagrid looking down on me.** "**Oi Harry, what're yeh doin' here?"  
"Uhh.. I kinda got lost. Where are we?" I asked.  
"Nocturn Alley, Harry. Best to stay away from this place. Look. We're coming up on Diagon Alley now, see ya later Harry!" He waved from a few paces behind me where he stopped. I waved back and wandered around Diagon Alley looking for the weasley's. I decided I'd better do some shopping while I was searching. Luckily, I had some money on me. Looked like just barely enough to get all of my supplies. My first stop was at Flourish and Blotts. If anywhere, the best place to find Hermione would be at a bookstore. And where Hermione was, theoretically, one of the adults would be there as well. There was a large crowd gathered there for no apparent reason. I tried to squeeze my way through the store to get a set of Lockhart's books. Standing in front of the counter where they were, was none other than Gilderoy Lockhart himself. He turned around and greeted me soundly. He pulled me closer to him while a photographer got a few shots of us.** "**Well then, good people of London. Young Harry Potter here walked into this shop just expecting to buy a set of my wonderful books, but will walk out of here with a complete collection of them. All signed by none other than myself. Also, I have an announcement to make. I will be joining the Hogwarts staff as the new defense against the dark arts instructor!" The crowd was in an outrage at this point. Guilderoy Lockhart, DADA instructor? This and many other comments buzzed around the small store. The new professor handed me the books and I accepted them thankfully. I escaped the crowd, only to run into Draco Malfoy. I tried to avoid him; not looking to start a fight, but he chased after me. ** **Finally, I turned around and asked: "What do you want Malfoy?"  
"Potter. You think you're so cool because you took pictures with Guilderoy Lockhart. The world has no place for the likes of you."  
"What are you talking about? I've never heard of him until I got my supplies list."  
"Don't play innocent with me, I know what you're up to." Just then, Ron, and Ginny showed up behind me. "Ah, you've brought along your blood-traitor-crony to help you? It won't work this time."  
"Ron, do you hear something?" I asked. Ron replied  
"No, it might've been you're imagination."  
"I guess so. Come on; let's get our stuff and leave. This place is too crowded for my liking." Draco's face was red as a beet when we had that conversation; but just as we turned around, he grabbed onto my shoulder and spun me around. I ducked and rolled away just as he tried to punch me. He chased after me. I walked around the store trying to avoid him. I was too busy looking behind me to notice that I bumped into someone. I turned around to see a tall man with shoulder-length platinum silver hair.  
"I'm sorry sir. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."  
"You should be. Draco, is this boy bothering you?"  
"Yes father. As a matter of fact, he is."  
"Are you sure about that Malfoy?" A voice said from behind me. It was Mr. Weasley followed by Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny.  
"Well well, if it isn't the Weasley brood."  
"Were you bothering young Harry here?"  
"This is Harry Potter?" I nodded silently. "You know, there are stories about you. That you can accomplish great things."  
"Leave him alone Lucius. Come boys, Ginny. We've got a lot of shopping to do." We turned around and walked out of the shop. I guess that they were finished shopping for their books. The rest of the day was uneventful. However; the ride to Hogwarts was a completely different story.** ** -BREAK-** **We took two separate vehicles. Some of us rode in a ministry provided car; while the rest rode in the Weasley car. We got our stuff unpacked and put them onto separate trolleys. We reached the barrier with no problems; but I was quickly proved wrong. Ginny went first; followed by Fred and George, then Percy, and then Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Me and Ron decided to go at the same time, one right after the other; but instead of seeing the Hogwarts express; the barrier turned into a solid brick wall. I looked up at the clock on the pillar; it was five minutes to eleven.** "**We couldn't be late, could we?" I asked.  
"I don't know. It's never done this before." Ron replied.  
"Well, what are we going to do?" I asked as I starting picking up my things.  
"We could take the car." Ron said nervously.  
"Uhh… ok, do you have the key?"  
"No, but dad always keeps a spare in the glove box."  
"Great. Let's go then." I said. We started walking out of the train station and loaded our stuff into the car. Ron opened the passenger side door and retrieved the spare key from the glove compartment where he said it would be. He walked around to the driver side and unlocked the door. We climbed into it and Ron started the engine up.** "**Do you have any idea on how to fly this thing?" I asked.  
"Sure. Dad's been giving me driving lessons."  
"Great. Let's get going then. Where's the cloaking device?"  
"Uhh… let's see, is it this one?" He said as he pushed a button. Music started playing and Ron shook his head. He pushed another button and the windshield wipers started going. He pushed several more until finally, the hood of the car became invisible and we lifted it up and drove after the Hogwarts express.** ** -BREAK-** **The ride was very uneventful. We followed the Hogwarts express until the cloaking device gave out. Then we chose to drive in the clouds, dipping down below every few minutes to make sure we were still on track.** "**Do you think the girls are going to be mad at us for not sitting with them?" Ron asked out of the blue.  
"Either that, or they'll get really, really mad." I replied confidently.  
"Thanks mate…" Ron grumbled.  
"Any time." I said jokingly. This seemed to cheer him up a bit. The clouds parted and the castle could be seen looming in the distance. "We're almost there, we should get changed after we park the car."  
"Yeah, good idea." Ron said. We were coming up on the castle fast and Ron barely had time to slow the car down when we were hit by a tree branch.** "**What was that?" I asked.  
"Must be the Whomping Willow." Ron said. Great. I heard stories from Fred and George about this tree. It attacks anything that goes near it. We landed right ing the middle of the tree. I opened the door and jumped onto the roof just as a branch hit where I was sitting. I opened up Ron's door and pulled him up. I slid down onto the bumper and opened up the trunk; I grabbed our suitcases and dropped them down onto the ground assisted by the force. I jumped down via the same method and tried to get Ron to do so too.** "**I'm not too sure about this Harry…"  
"Come on, I dropped our trunks down and jumped off myself. You'll be fine." He was about to jump when a branch hit his back and pushed him forward into the open air. I had little time to think. I jumped up and grabbed him in mid-air. The landing could have been better, but we were both fine.** "**Harry… my wand…"  
"What about you're wand? Oh no…" I said. It had a big piece of it slashed away on the side and the feather that was his core was sticking out slightly. "Is there anything that we can do to fix it?"  
"Spell-o-tape maybe, but I don't know if it'll work."  
"Ok, I'll order some from that catalog Hermione gets for you. Hopefully it'll work. Let's get changed right now, the feast should be starting soon. Twenty minutes later, we were sitting at our customary places at the Gryffindor table. After a confrontation with Snape and McGonagall about injuring the Whomping willow; we were finally allowed to leave the room we were in. Hermione was furious because we were missing, but once I explained the situation, she calmed down a bit. I asked her about the spell-o-tape Ron mentioned. She said it was in her catalog. I gave her the money she needed to buy it and said she would place the order in the morning. Fred and George asked what happened. I gave them my interpretation of the event.** "**That's a stunt worthy…" Fred started.  
"Of the Marauders!" George finished.  
"Who are the marauders?" I asked.  
"We'll explain later." They said in unison. The feast was over quickly, we went up into the common room and the twins showed me the Marauder's Map. It was a magical map that displayed the names and location of anyone within the grounds of Hogwarts. I got a letter from Jace; lessons would start up again this Saturday.** "**Feels good to be home." I thought to myself as I fell asleep on my bed; I didn't bother to change.**


	11. General Lockhart at your service!

The next morning, I awoke to see Ron and Ginny playing a game of chess in the common room. I was a bit surprised to see her sorted there, but I guess it was only natural that she would follow the family tradition. I went down to breakfast after watching them a while, Ginny was quite good at the game; she must've gotten lessons from Ron. I sat down at the table. It was pretty early, so barely anybody else was there. I ate in relative silence as my "inner circle" as Fred and George took to calling it showed up and took places around where I was sitting. I asked the Weasley twins what they were planning this year.

"Nothing much Harry."  
"Honestly, nothing too exciting." Were there replies.  
"Yeah right, and I'll be a nun." Ron replied. This comment brought about several fits of laughter. After a while, Professor McGonagall came around handing out class schedules. We talked about this and that until the bell rang, telling us that classes would be starting soon. I looked at my list. First we had Potions with Professor Snape. The class was normal as it could get with Snape as potions master; accompanied by him taking points off of the three Non-Slytherin houses for brewing the potion wrong. After that disaster was through, I saw we had Defense class with Lockhart.

"This is going to be interesting." I thought to myself as I walked to the classroom. I took a desk with Ron as the girls took another a couple rows in front of us. After ten minutes of baseless speculation on what his classes would be like; he made his grand entrance. There was smoke that filled the room and several flash bombs going off. When the dust settled, there was Professor Lockhart, sitting at his desk with that so called "Award-Winning Smile" plastered on his face.

He stood up and walked to the middle of the room and started talking: "Hello and welcome back to another wonderful year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I will be your Defense against the Dark Arts instructor, Professor Guilderoy Lockhart, five time winner of Witch Weelky's "Most-Charming Smile Award," and many others. We will begin with a pop quiz to see how many of you have read my books previously." He waved his wand all fancy-like and a stack of papers floated from his desk and distributed themselves to each of the desks. "You may begin!" He said in a loud voice as I looked at his quiz. It was a pointless test filled with questions like "What is Guilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?" "What is my favorite food?" "How many books have I written?" "How many Werewolves did I fend off at once in page 359 in my book titled 'Walking with Werewolves?'" and "What Hogwarts house was I sorted into?" The last one, I put in Slytherin just for fun. Ron looked over at my paper after I was about half-way done and noticed the amusing comments.

"Harry, what did you do that for?" He asked.  
"Just for fun. Never read any of the guy's books so it's pointless for me to try and answer them correctly."  
"Good point." Ron replied. I got the feeling that he was now doing the same. After everybody finished the quiz, he walked around and collected all of the papers. He dismissed us with a large wave and I scurried out of the room. Hermione and Riley met up with us after a minute.

"So, how did you do?" Hermione asked.  
"Flunked it." I replied.  
"And you're not worried a bit about it?"  
"Nope, not one bit."  
"Well, I hope you at least read one of his books before today." Hermione asked, nervous about what I would say.  
"Not a one." Was my reply. She turned a deep shade of red after this remark from me. Riley thought it was best to walk that-a-way for a while, in her words, and Ron was really hungry, so he went double-time to the Great hall. Smart move guys; I thought to myself as she just about exploded with rage.  
"Harry! Why would you not read those books? They are really good, do you know the things he's done? Do you know how many near-death experiences he's gone through to collect all this information for us to read about?" Hermione said in a hurry, she was completely out of breath after the sudden outburst had made her pant from exhaustion.  
"Listen, I didn't mean to upset you, but with my Aunt and Uncle being the way they are, it's kinda hard to go down to Diagon Alley during the summer to pick up a book to read at my leisure, so chill out, it's nothing to get upset about." This seemed to calm her down a little, because Riley was now standing beside me, as I looked over my shoulder to swat away a fly. We continued to walk to the Great Hall for lunch. There, we were greeted by Fred and George. They informed me that Oliver Wood had posted the time for Quidditch tryouts. They were Saturday morning. Hermione and Ron looked as if they didn't care, but Riley seemed moderately interested.

"Are you thinking of trying out?" I asked her.  
"You'll just have to wait and see." She replied. I took that as a yes and starting piling my plate with food.  
"Hey guys," I said to Fred and George, "You didn't happen to have Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning, did you?"  
"No, we didn't. You did?" Fred asked.  
"Yeah, it was just before lunch. I want to pull a prank on him, any ideas on how to get started?"  
"I've got a few. George said.  
"Great. Tell me after supper in the common room. When do you two have defense class?"  
"Next period. We'll see what he's like to gauge how bad he's gonna get it." Fred replied.  
"Thanks guys. Knew I could count on you."  
"Anytime Harry." They said in unison. I turned back to my lunch and ate the rest of my meal quickly.

-BREAK—

That night, Me, Fred, George, Ron, and Riley sat around a large box of pranking materials, trying to decide what would be the best way to prank Lockhart. Fred and George had shown us the Marauder's Map. It was really cool. It even showed all of us crowded around a table. After a long, heated discussion about which things to use, we had it planned perfectly. The next day, during lunch, Fred and George would sneak out to all of the Gargoyles and armored knights to follow him around wherever he went, starting as soon as he walked out of the Great Hall. The plan was to have each of them change colors every hour to make him think that every single one of them was different. When lunch time came around, Fred and George did the deed.

"So, how did it go?" I asked right when they sat back down.  
"Worked like a charm!" George said.  
"Yeah, literally." Fred replied. This brought a round of giggles from those who could hear them banter. "Even got some of the paintings to follow him around too."  
"Excellent." I replied. "So, how long does the charm last for?"  
"About a week." Fred replied.  
"And after that time, he'll be just about going nutters with everything following him around, right?"  
"Just about." George said.

Let's just say that the next week were some of the funnest days of my life.

-BREAK—

Saturday morning, I woke up early, wanting to get to the Quidditch Pitch earlier than the crowd. I grabbed my broom from under my bed and went downstairs to get a quick bite to eat. I did just that, but I was a bit surprised to see Riley sitting there eating just about as fast as she could.

"What's up?" I asked as I sat down and fixed myself some eggs and bacon.  
"Quidditch." She replied in-between bites.  
"Ah, so you are trying out then. I didn't think that you'd taken interest to it last year."  
"Opinions can change, can't they?"  
"True," I conceded. "So, what position you gonna try out for?"  
"Chaser. I've been practicing when nobody's watching."  
"For how long?"  
"Just started this week. I think I've got a good chance at the slot." She replied.  
"That's great. Shall we be going then?" I asked, standing up.  
"We shall." She replied and started walking out the door. I did the same; we talked about Quidditch the whole way there. I went into the locker room to get changed into my uniform. Riley would just wear her school robes. I walked out of the changing room to see Riley chatting with Katie Bell, one of the chasers for the team.

"Oh, there you are Harry. Riley was just telling me she wants to try out for the chaser position." Katie said as she greeted me.  
"Yeah, there's this rumor going around saying she wants to do just that. Not sure if it's true though." I replied.  
She giggled a bit and said "You've been spending too much time with Fred and George, haven't you?"  
"Probably." I said. "We'd better get out there. Oliver should be starting in a minute."  
"Yeah, you're right. Let's go!" Riley said. I was right too. Oliver was getting everyone sorted by position. He said that chasers would go first, beaters next, then the seeker would be last. The three of us got lined up in our respective places. I saw Katie and Riley mount their brooms and fly up with another boy for the first round. They both did excellent. I knew that Riley had been training hard by seeing her performance. She landed next to me and I said:

"Riley that was amazing! How long have you been practicing for every day?" I asked in amazement at her sudden skills."  
"About two hours a day, give or take half an hour."  
"What did Ron do to you?" I asked. She faked a look of shock and we both laughed. Before too long, it was time for her to go up again. She did the drills she was instructed to perfectly. Oliver took her, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet, a sixth year that had been on the team since her second year, over to the side apart from the rest. He announced that these three had done the best in the training courses and were as of now on the team. He then asked for the beaters to come up; but Fred and George were the only two that approached him.

"Well, that was easy." He said as they went to join the chasers. I was told to fly up and catch a snitch he let loose with another third-year boy. I located it in two minutes, caught it, and brought it back down to Oliver. He let a few other hopefuls do the same before deciding that I was best for the team. He told everybody that they could leave to let the team practice. We went through the exercises of a normal practice. Afterward, Oliver wanted us all in the locker room for a quick debriefing on what our main strategies would be. And when Oliver wood says quick, he means an hour; literally. It took him an hour and fifteen minutes of talk to get through everything we wanted to talk about. After a quick lunch, I went up to Jace's office to have our first lesson after the summer break.

-END CHAPTER-

So, how was it? Was Riley joining the Quidditch team too much? Don't worry about the canon storyline of the Chamber of Secrets, I've got it all planned out right here *points to brain*. Since I'm here, I guess I should tell you to leave a review; but I'm not going to do that. What I will do is *review* tell you how much fun I'm having with *review* writing this story. On that note, have a nice day, may the force be with you, adios amigos, *review* good-bye, however you want to say it.


	12. The Chamber has been opened

Two months after our little prank on Lockhart, who didn't get any better by the way, a series of events changed the way Hogwarts school was run.

_Two months earlier (Done in third person just to give it a try)…_

Harry had never felt so happy and free out on the Quidditch Pitch with the Gryffindor team, who were practicing for their game against Slytherin the following Saturday. The Slytherin team, of course, had to rub in the fact that Draco Malfoy was the new seeker for the team and his father had bought them all Nimbus 2001's. After they left, practice resumed its normality. Oliver Wood was directing the plays from his position at the goalposts; as determined as ever to win the Quidditch cup that year. He thought with the raw talent of Harry and Riley, they were naught but unstoppable. He called them in to congratulate them on a practice well done, and to fall into the Great Hall for dinner. First, they were to take a quick shower and change into school robes in the common room. After this was done on the way back down, they saw the creepiest thing they could imagine: Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, was hanging by its tail and in big red letters behind it said "The Chamber has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware." After a few minutes of the seven students staring at the cat, Professor Filch and Draco Malfoy came walking into the corridor.

Filch was in a state of shock at what he saw: his beloved cat, dead. "WHO DID THIS TO MRS. NORRIS?" He demanded at the top of his lungs.  
"Enemies of the heir beware. Your next Potter. Along with your mudblood girlfriend." Draco sneered at the group, of which Harry and Riley were in the front standing next to each other. They both looked at the other for a moment before quickly looking away and back to the wall. By this time, most of the school and the entire faculty were crowded into that one small corridor. Ron approached Harry and asked

"Harry, you haven't seen Ginny around, have you?"  
"No, sorry. I thought she'd be with you."  
"Don't worry Argus, she is not dead, but rather petrified." Professor Dumbledore said after a quick examination of the cat.  
"What do you mean, petrified?" He asked, obviously confused and ignorant to the situation.  
"Well, muggles would call it a coma, others call it suspended life. These all mean the same thing."  
"Hmph," the wizened caretaker growled in response "How soon can she be healed?"  
"I'm afraid the main ingredient, mature mandrakes, will not be ready until next April, close to the end of the school year."  
Filch let out a depressed sigh at this statement. He must have thought the rest of the year alone with the students would be too much to bear. Harry instantly recalled the Herbology lesson that involved the repotting the mandrake plants. The roots were gnome looking creatures that yelped at the top of their lungs whenever there head was above the soil. It was very humorous to see Draco demand that he not participate in this class lest his hands and robes get dirty.  
"Such a pity, I know just the counter-curse that would have saved him."  
"I'm sure you would have, Guilderoy. Now, as most of you have not had supper yet, the staff will escort you to the Great Hall for the remainder of the mealtime.

-BREAK—

The Saturday following the mysterious petrifaction of Mrs. Norris, the Gryffindor team was all geared up to play against Slytherin in the first Quidditch match of the season. Lee Jordan, who was commentating the event, called out the individual names of each team, and they flew out of their respective locker room until all fourteen players were on the field. Madame Hooch rambled off the usual rules, and released the Snitch and Bludgers, threw the Quaffle up into the air, and the game got started. The game was filled with all sorts of Quidditch-y shenanigans, which included Oliver blocking shots with his head and feet, Fred and George playing around with the bludgers and ramming them into opposing players. After a few minutes of Harry searching for the snitch, he felt a disturbance in the force. Something wasn't right… And it was right behind him. He ducked at the last possible moment before the ball would have hit him. Then it did the strangest thing, it circled back around to have another go at the Gryffindor Seeker. Harry turned his broom around and zipped away from the ball. It chased him from the top of the stands all the way to the ground and anywhere in-between. Once, he tried going into the stair system of the stands to lose it there, but it kept following him. He had caught the snitch right before he decided it was time to use those _special abilities. _He zoomed up to the top of the stands and jumped off of his broom. The rogue bludger, of course, followed him as expected. He pulled out his lightsaber and cut the ball in half; closed it, and summoned his broom back with the force; or at least he tried. Just as he grabbed the broom, his right side hit the ground hard. His arm hurt like hell, at least until Guilderoy Lockhart had his go with it. Somehow he cast a charm that dissolved all the bones in his arm. This was met by several stunning spells from almost all of the teachers. Madame Pomfrey cast and additional one on Harry to ensure a safe trip to the hospital wing. When he came-to, he was met with someone embracing him in a hug that would have made Molly Weasley jealous. After a moment of him suffocating, he heard another voice instructing the person to get off. Once the person who was hugging him, who happened to be Riley, was standing up, he could see nine faces staring at him. Coincidentally, those faces were the Quidditch team, Ron, Hermione, and Madame Pomfrey. She instructed him to drink the entire potion that was in a small vial, it would help him regrow the bones in his arm, which was hanging limp in a sling beside him.

"Nice to see you guys." He said weakly.  
"Harry, how could you do that? You scared me—I mean scared us half to death. What kind of stunt was that? Don't you know how dangerous, although incredibly cool that was? What was the shiny blue thing that you had in your robes? How did you summon your broom without your wand?" Riley's sudden outburst was surprising to the boy in the hospital bed, but he didn't mind explaining.  
"Uhh, Riley… I thought it was my job to get angry at the boys when they did something stupid." Hermione said in a defeated tone.  
"Hey! I was, I was… oh fine!" Riley replied dejectedly.  
"It's a long story guys, but I guess I'd better start now." Harry said as he began to tell the tale of his jedi training and his mana abilities. By the time he was done, it was time for guests to leave for the night. He did feel that they were very surprised to learn of other planes, but he also felt that they understood what had happened. A few hours later, he was awoken by a small pop and a house elf landing on him. He recognized this particular house elf.

"Dobby, what are you doing here?" He asked in a harsh whisper.  
"I told Harry Potter he mustn't be going back to Hogwarts again!" The abused elf replied.  
"So it was you that sent the bludger after me?" Harry asked, amazed at the will of this elf to protect him.  
"Of course! I told Mr. Potter that there are dark things happening here. Misses Norris is only the first. There will be more."  
"More what? Petrifactions?"  
"Yes yes! You must leave immediately!" Dobby said in a cheerful tone.  
"But I can't. Hogwarts is my home. The people here are like the family I never had." He thought of Riley, Ron, Hermione, and the Weasley twins after he said this. The house elf seemed to not like this remark, but replied in a somber tone:  
"Mark my words Harry Potter. This threat may shut down the school." After saying this, the elf apparrated away, leaving the bedridden boy alone to his thoughts.

Harry laid back down in bed to mull over what Dobby had said. He knew the elf was trying to protect him; but it seemed like he would kill him first. After a few more minutes, he heard three sets of footsteps enter the room, and another going to greet them.

"Another attack?" Madame Pomfrey asked.  
"I'm afraid so." Another voice replied. This one, it seemed, sounded like Professor Dumbledore.  
"Who was it?" She asked.  
"He goes by the name of Colin Creevey. He is a first year in my house. Such a pity he won't be able to finish the year." Another voice said. Harry identified this one as Professor McGonagall and continued listening.  
"What happened to his camera?"  
"Young Colin tried to take a picture of whatever did this to him. I tried to look through it, but it utterly destroyed the machine. So as of now, we have no clue as to what this menace is." Professor Dumbledore replied.  
"That's alright for now. But I do need to take Mr. Creevey and care for him properly, so if you'll excuse me. I'm sure the three of you are tired, one does need his rest, you know."  
"Thank you Poppy, we'll take our leave now. Minerva, Severus." Dumbledore said as he walked out of the room. McGonagall and Snape soon followed, which left Madame Pomfrey alone with Colin. He turned onto his side and fell asleep soon after this event unfolded.

The next evening, by the time that the rumors about the second attack and Harry's stunt had taken there course, the Gryffindor six, as most of the school had taken to calling the inseparable group of friends, were once again huddled around the Marauder's Map. They were planning a raid on the kitchen for a midnight snack when George noticed a certain figure on the map.

"Ah, Ginny's on her first past-curfew excursion." George said in a false tearful tone.  
"We're so proud." Fred finished in the same manner.  
"That's great, but can we get back to the mission?" Ron asked.  
"Ron, are you ever _not _hungry?" Riley asked.  
"Good question." Harry asked. A few rounds of witty banter and laughter later, the five of them were under Harry's invisibility cloak in front of the portrait to the kitchen. "So, how do you open it?"  
"Watch and learn, young apprentices." Fred said in a commanding voice. He stepped out from under the cloak, tickled the small pear just above his head, and ducked back under it. "Welcome younglings, to the Hogwarts Kitchens." The place was a large set of rooms, there were about ten in total: one for food storage, two for supplies, four for cooking, and three for sinks to wash hands and dishes in before & after meals. The younger students had marveled at the size of even one of the rooms; but there were ten there! Fred and George asked one of the elves to prepare some sweets for the group. He came back five minutes later with three large plates of brownies. Fred and George took them and motioned to the group to follow them back up.

"And you guys made it sound so hard." Harry said as they sat back down at their table.  
"Yeah, seriously. If I had known it would be this easy I would be doing it almost every night." Ron said, his stomach obviously in charge as he grabbed one of the brownies and took a large bite out of it.

The group ate the cakes, talked for a while longer, and then went to sleep just as the clock struck midnight.

An hour later, in that same room, a first year Gryffindor girl named Ginny Weasley awoke from a trance placed on her by an unknown force.

Chapter End

Duh-duh-duuuuuuh! So, now what happens to the gang? Leave a review *longer than 1 word* and read further installments to see what happens next!


	13. Solving the Riddle

I think it's time for me to post another disclaimer, so here we go: See Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

Chapter 13: Solving the Riddle (pun intended.)

"Ladies and gentlemen I am pleased to inform you that Professors Guilderoy Lockhart and Severus Snape will be offering a dueling club to all those who are interested. Dates and times will be posted on the common room message boards." Dumbledore announced as the Great Hall erupted in cheers and applause. The great Guilderoy Lockhart, adventurer extraordinaire, would be teaching a dueling club _and _Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Well, as for me, I was interested in the prospect. Mostly because I wanted to see Lockhart make a fool of himself, but also to learn a thing or two from Snape. The first class that morning was Defense, so me, Ron, and the girls went down to Lockhart's classroom, which was conveniently one corridor away from the Great Hall. As we got there, the desks were filling up in the front faster than in the back. Me and Ron took one in the back row while Hermione dragged Riley to a desk closer to the front. Shortly afterwards, "Professor" Lockhart made his usual dramatic entrance. With him, he had a large bird-cage with a velvet covering on it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I know what you are all thinking. You wish to know what I, the great Guilderoy Lockhart, has in this here cage; but before I can show you, I must go over a quick spell. The charm I am about to show you is called the immobilizer jinx. The incantation is "Pretrificus Totalus." Everybody say it with me now!" The class then repeated what the professor said, practiced it a few times on one another, with Lockhart performing the counter-charm on those who were stunned. It was pretty useful, but given the option, I would opt on the side of using Jace's specialty, Crytpic Command. Lockhart then announced what was in the cage: A dozen Cornish Pixies. They were small, about six inches tall, with dark blue skin and short, stubby wings that looked like they could maneuver the owner in any which-way. They had sharp teeth and solid black eyes that the normal person would consider very intimidating. I still thought they were a little creepy, though. Guilderoy let them out of the cage and tried firing the spell he showed previously, it only incited the little blue devils into attacking him, which they did. Hermione and a couple of the other girls tried to get the things off of him with the spell, while the rest of us only laughed at the scene in front of us. Finally, they relented and when Lockhart stood up, he had absolutely no hair left and a pixie was flying in circles around his head with what looked like a wig. He tried to grab his wig back, but the pixie succeeded in grabbing his wand and flying out the window with both of the Professors items. He fainted at the sight of the class and it was up to us to reign in the remaining pixies. I cast the immobilizing spell on the pixies, not wanting to draw more attention to myself after the stunt I pulled on the Quidditch Pitch last week. The absence of the professor meant that the class was over after we put the things back in the cage, so Ron, Riley, and I went up to the common room for a quick break while Hermione tried her best to revive the best-selling author.

-BREAK—

A few weeks later, there was another attack, this time, it was Justin Fletchy and Nearly-Headless Nick. And of course, I arrived at the scene first, so naturally everybody blames me. Except for Ron, Riley, Hermione, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, who was convinced by the Weasley twins that I was innocent. We were discussing who the "Heir of Slytherin" might be. Hermione researched the "chamber" the wall mentioned and came up with the Chamber of Secrets. She said that it was one of Slytherin's secret inclusions to the castle when it was built. It held a monster that only his Heir could control. The last time it was opened, someone was killed by the beast. A Slytherin boy known as Tom Riddle had apprehended this heir and he was expelled from Hogwarts.

"I think it might be Malfoy." I said confidently.  
"Why would you say that?" George asked.  
"Because. Have you seen the way he acts? He struts around like he owns the place. He absolutely looooves to pick on muggleborns and half-bloods. AKA, anyone who's not in Slytherin."  
"I see what you're saying, but we can't be sure of that." Ron said.  
"We can't, but I know someone who can…" I said cryptically. I told them I would take it up with Jace when they asked what I meant by that.

So, just like that, the Gryffindor Six came up with a plan. Hermione would research what kind of magical creature the chamber held, while I would come up with a way to check if Draco Malfoy was the perpetrator.

That Saturday, during my lesson with Jace, I asked if it would be possible to learn a spell that could take control of a person's body. Jace answered me immediately.

"Yes, there is a piece of magic that can do that. Coincidentally, this one is named "Mind Control," it is a fairly easy piece of magic to learn and cast. However, it does take quite a bit of blue mana to cast. Would you be interested in learning how to perform this one?"  
"Yes. It does sound interesting." I said. So Jace instantly started to show me how to cast this one; and also how to throw it off. He tried it on me to see what it was like. I felt a very strong urge to jump up on his desk. Just as fast as it had come on, it went away.

"So, that's it?" I asked.  
"That's what it feels like." Jace replied. We practiced for a few more hours until I felt confident I would be able to perform it whenever I had the mana. The next evening, we were told to go up to the hospital wing by Professor McGonagall after supper. That was past Moaning Myrtles bathroom. Fred and George had said something about this place; there was a ghost that lived in the bathroom. She said she died fifty years ago. I wonder if she's linked to the chamber of secrets, I thought to myself as we rounded the corner. There was water on the ground up to my ankles and there were lines of spiders crawling up the wall.

"Have I ever said how much I hate spiders?" Ron asked me as we waded through the water.  
"Only a hundred times a day." Came Riley's reply.

After a few more minutes of walking, Riley asked "I wonder why Hermione wasn't at supper…"  
"I think I know." I replied as I looked into the Hospital Wing door. There she was, lying on a bed with a mirror in one hand and a sheet of parchment in the other. I heard Riley gasp from behind me as Madame Pomfrey assured us that she was only pertified. Riley , who was now standing beside me, grabbed onto my side and started crying onto my shoulder. I hugged her back and reassured her that Hermione would be ok. We stayed there a few minutes more, wondering how she could have been petrified. We stayed like that until I heard a cold voice ring in my ears: "_Let me rip, tear, kill_!" it called from out of nowhere.

"Guys, did you hear that?" I asked whoever would listen.  
"Nope."  
"Hear what?"  
"There was a voice, it sounded cold, it said let me kill! Are you sure I'm the only one who heard that?"  
"I'm sure"  
"Positive."  
"Hm. I don't know. The dueling club's tomorrow, so I want to get some sleep to be ready for that. You two coming?"  
"Yep." They both replied. Riley was a bit disheveled by the event; but managed to get some sleep before the upcoming event the next day.

-BREAK—

The morning following, m, along with the rest of my crew, were standing on the side of one of the tables in the Great Hall. It was in the middle of the room whereas the rest had been cleared away magically. Professors Snape and Lockhart were standing on the top of it instructing the class.

"Now, what we're going to do is take turns firing spells at one another; one of you will fire a spell while the other will attempt to block it. Allow me and my lov-err, assistant demonstrate how it will be done."  
"I am not your assistant Lockhart I am your partner." Snape said in his usual monotone.

Lockhart looked a bit depressed at this remark, but walked exactly ten paces back just as he said he would do. Professor Snape fired a disarming spell at Lockhart, but instead of producing a shield like his spell should have, it sent him flying back against the wall _before _the spell hit him. Then it hit him and it sent him back a bit further; but this time it threw his wand out of his hand. The professor hit the wall hard. He quickly got up to retrieve his wand before getting back up on the table.

"Well done, Professor Snape! Now, my turn! Expelliarmus!" Lockhart then shot the spell back at Snape; but instead of mimicking Lockhart's reaction, he quickly cast a shield charm that blocked the spell.

"That's how it's done, Guilderoy. Now, I need two volunteers…" said Snape as he combed the rows of students lining the table. "Mr. Potter."

I gulped, figuring that I would go up against him; but instead, he called out another name. "Draco Malfoy." He called in his usual monotone. Draco then got up onto the table beside him.

"Now, both of you walk up to each other and bow. Go on then!" Called Lockhart in a cheerful voice. We did so, as we bowed to each other, Draco asked in a cold voice

"Scared Potter?"  
"You wish." I said with an intimidating accent that seemed to be effective. I turned around and began walking to the end of the table just as he shot a disarming spell at me. I flipped backwards over it; figuring that it was too late to hide my Jedi skills from the rest of the school. I turned around on me heels while still crouched down to see Draco smirking and Ron staring at me with a wide grin on his face. Even Riley looked like she enjoyed the spectacle.

"Twenty points to Slytherin for taking advantage of a situation." Snape said as he nodded to Draco. He instructed us to continue with the duel. I quickly figured out that Cryptic Command scares the hell out of people. The whole room was filled with ghastly faces while they looked to Snape, who was reviving the Slytherin boy. Draco instantly got up and said

"Serpensortia!" I was amazed to see a large brown snake fly out of his wand and onto the table in front of me. After a few moments of deliberating, it turned around and was approaching Riley fast.

"Stop! Don't hurt her!" I called out to the snake as I pulled my lightsaber into my hand, hidden by my robes. It instantly stopped and turned around to face me. It nodded it's head and layed down right there. It eerily reminded me of two summers ago when I trapped Dudley into the snake cage accidently. That memory always brought a smile to my face whenever I thought of the Dursley's faces; how panicked they were. Several members of the crowd took this the wrong way and fled the room, never looking back. Snape cast a complicated spell that made the snake vanish into thin air.

"Potter. Out. Now." Snape said as I got off of the table and walked out the door. I saw the others follow me. After they caught up, Ron asked

"You never told me you were a Parselmouth!"  
"A what?"  
"You can talk to snakes." Ron said.  
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused as to what he was getting at.  
"You were speaking a different language."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah. You sure you weren't aware of it?"  
"I'm positive." I assured him.

The rumor quickly spread. Harry Potter, a parselmouth. As usual, I paid no heed to the gossip; but it kept attracting weird stares that started bugging me.

That was it! The sound inside the walls, it was a snake! I went double-time to the Hospital wing, even though it was in the middle of the first period; I got permission to leave by Professor Flitwick, along with Ron and Riley. I quickly explained my thoughts to them my thoughts. They agreed that it made sense, but wanted to check the slip of paper Hermione had in her hand. We approached the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey got word that we were clear and ushered us to beside Hermione's bed. She was still fixated in the same position. I grabbed the paper from her hand and read from it aloud.

After I finished reading the paper, I thought for a moment before saying "Looks like Hermione figured it out for us. The monster is a Basilisk."

-End Chapter—

Aaaaand, that's it! They've solved the mystery! Now we just need to find out more about the chamber. Also, leave a review please!


	14. The one with the really long ears!

A few minutes later, Me, Ron, and Riley were sitting in the common room with Fred and George discussing what we discovered about the Chamber of Secrets.

"Is it really a Basilisk?" George asked.  
"Sure is. Hermione was carrying a sheet of paper when she was petrified that says so." Ron replied.  
"I want to figure out who exactly is controlling this thing," I said. "So I was wondering, is there a way to listen in on conversations that are a short distance away?"

After I said this, the twins looked at each other and their eyes lit up.

"Harry, we have just the thing for you." Fred said as he got up from our table to run up to the dormitory. He came back down a minute later with two rubber-looking ears.  
"What are those things?" I asked.  
"This is an extendable ear. Me and George have been working on it all year. We wanted to keep it a secret for a little longer, but I think we need it now."  
"So, how does it work?"  
"Watch." Fred said as he gave me one of the ears and walked to the other side of the common room. "Can you hear me now?" I heard a voice ask. It sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure. It was contorted a bit. "Earth to Harry Potter, this is Fred Weasley speaking, do you come in? Over." I was shocked. I looked at Fred, who had a smug look on his face. He put the ear up to his mouth again and said "Hellllllo?"

"Wow, that's really cool. How many of those do you have made?" I asked George as Fred was walking back over to us.  
"What does it do?" Riley asked from her seat across the table from where I was standing.  
"You speak into this ear, and you listen in to the other ear." I replied.  
"So it's like a magical walkie-talkie?" She asked.  
"Pretty much."  
"What's that?" Ron asked.  
"A walkie talkie is something that you carry around and talk into. The person with the other set can hear you talk. That way, you can have a long-distance conversation." Riley said matter-of-fact-ly; much like Hermione would.  
"Neat. Bet dad would like that." Ron said.  
"Ok, back on topic. I want to find out who's controlling this Basilisk. I've got a few ideas, but we'll need a plan to figure this one out." I said, sitting back down at my seat.  
"Who do you think it is?" George asked.  
"Draco Malfoy and Snape for starters. I'm sure we could add to that list, though.  
"You really think that Snape could be doing this?" Fred asked.  
"Positive. We can find out about him later, but I want to test Malfoy first."  
"Any ideas then?" Riley asked.  
"I put a sinister look on my face and said "Yes I do Riley, yes I do."

An hour later, we were still sitting at our table; except for the fact that I used a quick Mind Control spell on Crabbe, one of Malfoy's bodyguards, as we passed them in one of the hallways in the dungeon level. I managed to slip the extendable ear into his pocket as I did this. I activated the spell and waited. For a minute, nothing happened, then I found myself walking in the dungeon alongside Malfoy. I grinned inwardly. It had worked. We got to the Slytherin common room door and the painting asked for the password. Malfoy nudged me; or rather, the person I was possessing at the moment. I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders.

"Fine. Do you two ever remember the password?" He asked me and Goyle, who was on the other side of him.  
"N-n-no… I'm too scared of the m-m-monster."  
"Oh fine. Pureblood." He said to the painting. It swung inwardly on its hinges to allow us entry.  
"So, is it you that's controlling the thing? Are you the heir of Slytherin?" I asked in a overdone hoarse whisper.  
"No, of course not you dunderhead. Still though, I would like to meet who is. It would be a real honor."  
"O-o-ok…" I said, still trying to sound scared out of my wits. "I-I'll be right back." I ran down the corridor and deposited the extendable ear behind a statue. I walked back to the Slytherin common room and gave the password. I walked inside, sat Crabbe down on a couch opposite Malfoy and Goyle, and released the spell.

"Nope. It's not him. Scratch that theory." I said as I came back to my own body.  
"Did you take the ear out of his pocket?" George asked.  
"Yeah. I left it behind the statue in the corridor."  
"Great. I'll go get it." He said as he started for the painting entryway.  
"Wait. You'll need my invisibility cloak." I said as I got up to go get it out of my trunk. I returned a minute later, cloak in hand. I gave it to George as he thanked me and walked out of the door. We talked for a while about nothing until George returned with the ear in his right pocket.

"I got it. Thanks for the cloak Harry, had a close call with Filch. This thing saved my neck." He said as he handed the cloak back to me. I went put it back into my trunk. When I came back down, everybody was just about ready for bed. So I bid everyone a good night and trooped up the stairs after Ron. I flopped onto be bed and instantly fell asleep.

The next morning during breakfast, I was given a letter to meat Jace immediately after breakfast. It seemed urgent; so I asked Riley and Ron to check out Moaning Myrtles bathroom. So, after everyone had cleared out of the Great Hall, I went up to the Ancient Runes' professor's office; a pathway I knew well by this point in time, having traveled to and from it dozens of times over the past year and a half. I knocked on the door. The professor bid me come in and the door swung open on its own accord. I stepped in and he greeted me warmly. He informed me that there was a holiday of sorts happening at the Jedi Temple today and that I would be excused from class because of it. I told him that I was ready and we planeswalked straight into the Jedi Temple. There was nobody in the main lobby. When I asked Jace about it; he said that everybody was in the courtyard. So we walked into said room and there everybody was; on all three levels of balconies and all on the outskirts of the training area. In the grass; a saw a Twi'lek apprentice named Ahsoka Tano dueling with another human child; he couldn't be scarcely a year or two older than me. I knew Ahsoka because she is apprenticed to a Jedi Knight named Anakin Skywalker; who was a good friend and former apprentice of Obi-Wan's. I watched them duel for a few more minutes until Ahsoka knocked out the other boy with a spinning kick to the stomach. Just as two knights were taking their places at the arena, Obi-Wan found me.

"Ah, Harry. Good to see you made it here on time. Come with me and we'll sign you up." He said as he motioned for me to follow him.  
"Wait… sign up for what?" I asked, following him to the other side of the courtyard.  
"The dueling tournament, that's what." He replied in a cheerful manner.  
"Cool. What for?"  
"We do this every year around this time. Or, every year and a half on Earth; which is why you missed it last time. The Jedi council organizes this event mostly for the young ones to acquaint themselves with the Knights."  
"Ok. So, it's not too late to sign up, right?"  
"Not until the first round is over, no." He replied. We reached a table with Master Yoda sitting on a chair behind it. As he walked up to the wizened Jedi, he bowed and said "Hello, Master Yoda. It appears that my young apprentice here decided to show up and compete."  
"Yes yes yes. To see you again so soon; a great pleasure it is, young Harry."  
"Thank you." I said as I took a bow towards him. "So, how exactly do I sign up?"  
"No need to. Your presence here has already done it for you. You will know when to begin dueling when you feel the urge to go onto the grass." He said. I thanked him and I went onto the second level of the balcony to watch from there. After a while, I felt what Master Yoda had described to me and I climbed back down the stairs to have a go at whoever might choose to face me. It was a young Gungan boy that introduced himself as Jar-Jar Gunji. I bowed to him and brandished my lightsaber, which I had traded in for a special one designed for use during practice duels for today. I waited for him to make a move first, which he did after a moment. He ran at me and I jumped up as his weapon passed harmlessly under my feet. I landed behind him as I swung my blade at his back. He swung around and blocked it just before it collided with his side. I took a step back as I tried to sweep his feet from under him with a sharp kick to his ankles; but once again, he anticipated this move and jumped up to avoid being knocked down. I sprang back up just before I was hit with a downward strike from his lightsaber. I crouched down and sprang over his head while using the force to pull away his lightsaber from him. I turned around and placed both blades crossed at his neck. He conceded politely and I handed back his blade to him. I bowed and walked off of the grass and went back up to where I was standing before. A loud applause followed me up the stairs, letting me know I did well. The event continued in such fashion as that for a while; after a lunch break, the finals were announced for the padawans and the knights. It turns out me and Ahsoka were in the finals for our bracket. Immediately after this announcement, they announced that Obi-Wan and Anakin were in the finals in their brackets. As I walked onto the grass, the Twi'lek girl wished me luck and bowed to me. I did the same as I activated my lightsaber and took a few steps backward. We circled each other for a minute, then I decided to make a move. I ran three steps forward and sprang up over her and tried to swing at her from behind me; but she swung around and blocked my strike before it could connect. She tried a parry of her own; a downward strike to my side at an angle that would sever my arm if her weapon would be at full power. I blocked it and rolled over to behind her. She was stunned for a split second before turning around to face me once more; but it was too late. I pounced on top of her before she could defend herself. The duel ended with me holding my lightsaber to her neck; hers being under it. My legs were off to one side of her. I got up to my feet and offered a hand to her. She accepted and I helped her to her feet. We bowed to each other to much applause as we walked off of the stage. I stayed to watch Obi-wan and Anakin's duel; which Anakin won after a long, hard fight. I walked to the lobby of the temple and activated my mirror to call Jace. The professor had gotten this mirror for me at the beginning of the school year for easier communication. How they work is that they act as muggle telephone sets that one could see the other side of the mirrors as well. He responded after a moment's pause. I told him I was ready to leave and I crossed over to his side of the mirror. It was a slight modification that the planeswalker had made to it. He made it to where one could, for lack of a more sophisticated term, teleport to the other mirror during a call. I thanked him for a ride and he escorted me back to the Gryffindor common room and bid me a good night. Sitting on the couch; I saw Riley sitting there, looking half-asleep. When she saw me, her eyes lit up as she jumped up from her seat and practically ran over to me.

"You look excited. What happened?" I asked as I felt a burning sensation in my face. I couldn't explain it to you even if I tried at the time; but later on, recalling the memory, I realized it was a blush.  
"I asked Moaning Myrtle about the chamber. She showed me and Ron where it is!" She replied in her usual, over-excited voice.  
"Really? Where is it?"  
"In her bathroom. There is a snake carved into the bottom of one of the sinks."  
"Ok. I'll talk to Dumbledore about killing this Basilisk tomorrow, if he's here." I said as I let out a yawn "I'm bushed. I'm going to sleep. I'll tell you what I did tomorrow during breakfast."  
"Sure. Good night Harry." She said as she walked slowly up the stairs to the girls dormitory. I went up the opposite set of stairs and looked at the clock in the bedroom. It was 11:30. I can't believe Riley waited up until midnight to see me. Then again, she did find the resting place of a deadly monster that needs to be dealt with. I put these thoughts to the side and I fell onto my bed and fell asleep after only a moment of silence.


	15. Showdown with the Basilisk

The next morning, I awoke early in hopes of seeing Professor Dumbledore before breakfast in his office. I got out of bed and changed into my brown Jedi robe rather than my black Hogwarts one. In the common room, I was met by Riley once again.

"Hey Harry." She said as she got up to walk towards me.  
"Hey. What's up?" I asked, curious as to why she would be up before me.  
"I'm coming with you, that's what." She said defiantly.  
"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to sound innocent.  
"Come on Harry, don't play dumb with me. I know you're going into the chamber of Secrets." She said, and in a smaller, quieter voice, said "And I want to help."  
I was surprised at this comment. I assumed that after knowing someone for five years, you'd assume that you would know what they would and wouldn't do; and this was one of the moments she surprised me. "No. I won't let you come. If anyone gets hurt, I'd rather it be me." I said as I tried to walk passed her towards the portrait of the Fat Lady.

She turned around and grabbed my arm. "Are you sure?" She never seemed so serious as she asked this three word question.  
"Yes, I'm sure. If you get hurt down there, I could never forgive myself." I said as I pulled her arm off of me. As I did this, she pulled me into a tight hug and whispered in my ear

"Go kick some Basilisk ass Potter. For Hogwarts, for Hermione."  
"You got it." I whispered back as we relinquished the hug. I turned around and walked out of the common room. I took the most direct path I knew to the headmaster's office. I was surprised to find that the stone gargoyle that was guarding the door was off to one side, leaving me free to enter the room at my leisure. As I walked up the stairs into the main part of the office, I was amazed at what I saw. There were all kinds of magical objects cluttering the various shelves on the walls. I walked around for a bit, waiting for the Professor to show up.

"Ah, Harry Potter. I remember you well." Came an old voice from somewhere behind me. Instantly, I pulled out my lightsaber and crouched into a defensive position.  
"Who said that?" I said in a rather loud voice.  
"Don't worry, my boy. It's only me, I mean you no harm." Came the voice again. I looked to my right to see the sorting hat staring at me.  
"Oh. It's you." I said, standing up and deactivating my lightsaber, placing it back into my robe. "How did you know it was me?"  
"I've been enchanted to do so, if you've forgotten."  
"Right. Well, while you're right here, I've been wanting to ask you a question: Why did you sort me into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin?"  
"I know all of your deepest thoughts and feelings, and even some that you don't even know that you have. I placed you in Gryffindor because you have everlasting courage. You are tricky and ambitious like a true Slytherin should be, but you're Gryffindor traits are more pronounced than others." The hat replied as I heard a noise that sounded strange. I turned around to see Dumbledore's bird _on fire. _I ran over to the bird and cast the Aguamenti spell on it; but it was too late. The bird had already burned into ashes. It was then that the wizened professor decided to make his appearance.

"I swear, it wasn't me, Professor. The bird just went up in flames by itself." I said in a rush.  
"No need to worry Harry, Fawkes is a Phoenix. I've been urging her to do so for a week by now."  
"A phoenix? They just burst into flames when they die?" I asked, very confused. Of all the magical creatures I've seen, that sounded the strangest.  
"No, they do this when they are reborn. Come and see." He motioned over to me and pointed to the pile of ashes. There, inside of it, was a small bird, seemingly like it was just hatched.  
"Whoa!" I said, unable to hide my surprise.  
"Yes, it is incredible isn't it. Now, I assume that you are here for something other than to admire Fawkes?" He said. I regained my focus and replied:

"Yes, I've found out about the monster of the chamber, and how to get there." I said.  
"Well then, you've done it as well. I was planning on going down there myself tonight to dispatch the beast, but it appears you have other plans." He said, his eyes twinkling like they usually do.  
"Yep. I was going down myself, and I figured I'd need some help." I said, regaining my confidence over the situation.  
"Well then, I know of one other Professor that would love to come and join us." He said.  
"Who would that be?" I asked, but I didn't need a spoken answer. Just as I said this, Guilderoy Lockhart strode into the office. "HIM? You can't be serious?"  
"Ah, but I am." Dumbledore said. "I messaged him after I saw you come in."  
"Hmph. Oh well, we've wasted too much time already, shall we be going?"  
"We shall, Harry." Lockhart said as he led the way out of the office and into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I ducked down and looked for the etching that Riley told me about. After a moment of looking, I found it. I pushed the carving and stood up. After a short pause, it began to shake and it moved away from the wall, revealing a large hole big enough for someone to crawl through.

I motioned to them to go before me, but they insisted that I go first. So I slid down the chute that sank into the wall of the ancient castle. As I landed, it was very dark in the room I was in, so I lit up my wand with a Lumos spell and looked around. It was a large room with a large corridor leading away from it. On the ground, there were countless small bones of rats and other rodents. Closer to the back of the room, there was a large tunnel of clear material. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was an enormous snake skin. I heard another voice call after me as I turned around to see Professor Lockhart walking towards me.

"Hello Harry, shall we be going now?" He asked.  
"Where's Professor Dumbledore?" I asked, slightly suspicious of the man.  
"He went back to his office, he said he's forgotten something he needs." He replied in a smooth voice. I thought that something was up, but I decided to wait until later to figure it out. I turned around and walked into the tunnel. It was a very long stretch with several twists and curves, and when we finally got out of it, we saw another room such as the first, but without the snake skin. On the other side of the small, circular room was a large metal plate with several embossed metal snakes fanning out from a shared origin. I tried pulling it from the wall, but it wouldn't budge, so I took out my lightsaber and tried activating it, but it wouldn't come on. I tried several times more before giving up and sliding it back into its holster.

"Oh come on." I said under my breath. I thought of something else that could open the door. That's it! Parseltounge! I tried saying open in the snake-language. It took a few tries, but finally I got it, and the snakes fanned out from the door onto the sides and allowed us entry. The room on the other side of the door was quite the opposite of the previous two. It was a large chamber that spread out farther than I could see to the left and right. Ahead of me, there were two large columns of black granite snake-head statues. On the wall opposite me; there was a round door similar to the one we came out of. On the ground in front of the door, there was…

"Oh no…" I said. I ran up the row of statues and knelt down by the body of whom I had identified to be Ginny Weasley, Ron, Fred, and George's little sister. "Ginny. Wake up!" I said. "Lockhart, get over here now!" I shouted behind me to the cowering Professor.  
"NO!" He shouted back.  
"Well. Why not?"  
"Because, I saw something moving to the left!" He said. I knew at this point that he was a fraud. If he really did do all those things his books described, he would be up here in a heartbeat. I shook Ginny once more to no avail. I looked up to see a tall, slender, auburn-haired figure walk towards me.

I was a bit curious as to why this boy would be down here, he looked to be in his fifth or sixth year. "Hey, do you think you can help me wake her up? There's a Basilisk down here off to the left. We have to hurry!" I said, looking up at him.  
"She will never wake up, Harry." He said. Instantly, I jumped up and pulled my wand out.  
"Who are you?" I asked, training my wand on him.  
"Simple. Let me demonstrate." He said as he pulled out his own wand and carved into the air the words "Tom Marvolo Ridde."  
"Tom… I don't recall a Tom in Slytherin, is that your real name?"  
"Yes. You of all people should know that." He said as the letters of fire rearranged themselves to spell out the words: "I am Lord Voldemort."  
"Voldemort. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?" I yelled. I took a few steps back and prepared for a fight.  
"I am feeding off of her life-force. In a few moments, she will be dead, and I shall be alive once more." Voldemort said in a sinister voice.  
"No…" I said to myself. I couldn't let that happen. "STUPEFY!" I sent the stunning spell to him. I expected it to knock him out cold, but it passed through him harmlessly.  
"No physical body yet Harry, just tricks of the light." Tom said mockingly. He then uttered something in a language I knew could only be Parselmouth. Behind him, I heard the door clicking open. I shut my eyes and felt outward with the force. Lo and behold, there was the Basilisk, right on time. It's huge body slithered noisily behind it's master. "Open your eyes Harry, no one's going to hurt you."  
"Yeah, that's because as soon as I do, I'll be dead." I replied defiantly.  
"Clever boy." Voldemort said, and in a cold, clicking voice, said in Parseltounge "Attack. Kill."  
"Lockhart! Close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you to!" I shouted behind me. As much as I disliked him, I couldn't let him die down here. I turned around and opened my eyes and quickly surveyed the room once more. Standing over the fainted Guilderoy Lockhart was a face I couldn't be more glad to see. "Dumbledore." I muttered to myself. He was holding the sorting hat in his hands while attending to the passed out Professor, with his eyes shut, of course. I ran over to him and asked

"What took you so long?"  
"Guilderoy here shot a stunner at me when I wasn't paying attention."  
"Oh, come on, I think the Basilisk sees us." I said as Dumbledore gave me the old, ratty hat to hold. I ran up behind it and over to where Ginny was. I shot a stunner at the beast, but it reflected off harmlessly. I considered climbing up onto the snake, but decided against it and hid behind one of the stone, snake-head statues. After hiding for a while, I felt the hat get a lot heavier; I looked inside to find a long, silver sword.

"Great." I said as I stepped out from behind the statue and snuck around the snake, whom Dumbledore was distracting by sending spells at it. He had his eyes open, which meant that he must have blinded the beast. On that note, I jumped up onto the back of the snake and crept up to it's head as quietly as I could. Suddenly, it jerked it's head and sent me flying back onto the ground. It then tried to pounce on me. I stood up and stuck the sword into the roof of it's mouth, but not before it could cut a deep gash into my arm with one of its teeth. The pain was manageable, barely. It lessened a bit when I heard the image of Voldemort shout out in horror. The snake slumped to the ground after a moment of struggling with the sword. I pulled the thing out of it's mouth to find that the tooth that bit me was embedded into my arm. I pulled it out and staggered over to Ginny. She wasn't breathing. This is not good. How do I get out of this mess? That's it! She was holding a book. I picked it up to much of Voldemort's complaining. I opened it up to find that the pages were blank. I heard Dumbledore come up to me from behind and check on Ginny. I tried to rip the pages out, but they wouldn't budge. In a desperate attempt, I picked up the basilisk fang and stabbed the book with it. Instantly, the image of the young Tom Riddle started to flicker in and out of existence. I stabbed it a few more times until the apparition faded out of sight. Thankfully, I stood up and walked over to Dumbledore, who was leaning over Ginny, checking her pulse. I asked him if she would be ok, to which he replied yes. Exhausted, I passed out kneeling down where I was.

When I came to, I was surrounded by Ron, Riley, Ginny, Fred, George and Hermione. Wait, Hermione!

"How long was I out for?" I asked sleepily.  
"About two weeks, long enough to wake up the petrified victims." Ron said.  
"Dumbledore had to rush you here around lunchtime that day. We were so worried about you, Harry. I- I mean we, thought you would never wake up, right guys?" Riley said in her usual worried rant.  
"Speak for yourself." George said.  
"Yeah. We knew he would wake up. We were lucky enough to be here when you did."  
"Ginny, you alright?" I asked. She blushed and nodded her head. "Well, that's good. What was up with that book anyway?"  
"Professor Dumbledore said that he wanted to talk to you about that." She replied. I nodded and laid back down and drifted off to sleep, knowing that everyone would be ok with me doing so.

When I awoke, I found that there was a met with a note on my bedside table saying that Professor Dumbledore wanted to see me in his office. So I got up and walked towards the Headmaster's office and walked in. The professor was sitting behind his desk as he waved me into the room from where I was standing at the door. I walked up to the desk and took a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"Good morning Harry, how are you feeling?" He asked as I sat down.  
"Just fine, thanks." I replied.  
"That's good. Due to your actions, you saved young Ginny's life, along with stopping the rise of Voldemort again." As he was saying this, an enraged Lucius Malfoy followed by Dobby walked into the office.

He walked up to the desk and pounded on it with both of his fists. "What's this I hear about the school shutting down?" He asked, obviously enraged judging by his red face and Dobby cowering by the exit door.  
"Nothing. The crisis has been averted and the school will continue to run into next year."  
"Then why did you make me come here to question you about this?"  
"Ask yourself that question. Me and Harry here took care of it two weeks ago." Dumbledore said as he motioned over to me. Malfoy looked over to me as I looked at Dobby. As Malfoy and the Professor discussed the basilisk problem, I hatched an idea. I silently took off one of my shoes and the sock on that foot. I put the shoe back on and slipped the sock into Voldemort's diary. A few minutes later, Malfoy walked out of the office with Dobby on his tail. I got up and took the book with me, giving it to Malfoy. He promptly opened it up and shot me a discussed look as he tossed the sock behind him.

"Master has presented me with clothing. Dobby is free!" Sang the house elf behind us happily. Lucius looked behind him in horror as he pulled out his wand and aimed it at me. I took a few steps back and pulled out my own wand. It wouldn't do any good to take out my lightsaber given the current circumstances.

"Lucius Malfoy will not hurt Harry Potter!" The house elf screamed and blasted him across the hallway. Terrified at the house elf, the man ran down the remainder of the hallway and down the stairs. I picked up the book and put it back onto Dumbledore's desk before trooping out of the room and into the Great Hall four floors down for lunch.

-END CHAPTER—

So, how was it? Did I do a good job with the Basilisk fight?


	16. There's no place like home

Author's Note: Sorry I took so long with posting this chapter, I was a bit busy with school and other such things while trying to write (not a very good idea, but I find that listening to music while writing helps me get more done). Without further adieu, on with the show-err… story.

-START CHAPTER-

As I sat down at the lunch table to eat some food for the first time in literally weeks, Hermione showed me an old Daily Prophet article from a few days after I was knocked out. It had a picture of Professor Lockhart in his usual clown-face smile, but this time, he was holding up a frame with a set of numbers and was behind a set of bars. The head line was "Lockhart found fraud! An article by Rita Skeeter" The article was quite short but seemed to get to the point quickly. I piled my plate with food as I started to read the article.

"_Three days ago, Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry reported to the Ministry of Magic that fellow Professor, Guilderoy Lockhart, had attacked him. The ministry, reluctant to try him for assault on school staff, merely administered Veritaserum and asked him about the event. The questions Dumbledore and Minister Fudge asked the famous author and teacher had unsettled him greatly, but due to the potion in his system, he was forced to answer truthfully. One certain question the Minister asked the professor was "How did you go about writing your many books?" The answer to this, as unsettling as it may be, was "By finding the people who actually did these things, interviewing them, then clearing their memories, leaving me free to write it as a novel and sell it to the publishers. Yet another question was asked, this time on the journey into the now-infamous Chamber of Secrets. His answer to it was "I did it so that I could obliviate Potter and claim the deed for myself. I did not account for my passing out." We see that even the richest and most famous stars can have their fall. Guilderoy Lockhart is yet another in this long line. He has been sentenced to ten years in Azkaban and will be sharing a cell with the equally infamous Sirius Black._

Coming out of the paper, I muttered to myself, "Hm, so he finally got what's good for him." I heard Hermione let out a sigh from her seat next to me. "What?" I asked defensively.  
"Nothing." She replied a bit too quickly.  
"You still like his works though? You have to remember here, these aren't his adventures. These are merely a collaboration of stories that dozens of people witnessed and performed. Lockhart was only a gatherer of these works."  
She let out another sigh and said "I guess you're right, but the books are really good, and even though the news got out so fast, I still can't believe he would do something like this."  
"Well, stuff like this happens, you just have to accept it and move on." I replied with a bit of wisdom that Master Yoda gave me in passing.  
Hermione looked at me in shock for a moment before replying "What have they been doing to you at the Jedi Temple? You've changed since we first met."  
"Yeah well, this kinda fell on my shoulders as well as the fame from something I don't even remember doing. I honestly don't think I deserve it. I mean, what's the point in being famous if you don't even know what exactly you're famous for?"  
"You do have a point, but you have to remember that V-You know who has the wizarding world literally in his clutches until one year old Harry Potter bounced a killing curse back at it's caster. People don't like to let go of the kind of things he did."  
"Ugh, I concede. I can't beat you at an argument ever, you know that?"  
"True that Harry, I've tried several times, it just can't be done." I heard George call from a few seats over from me. This brought a chorus of laughter; not only because it was funny, but because it was true. No student at Hogwarts school has ever beaten Hermione Granger at an argument; whatever the topic.

-BREAK—

A month after I awoke from my state of unconsciousness, we were on the beaten path towards the Hogwarts express after another successful year. Me and Hermione had passed our end of term exams with flying colors, Ron, Riley, and the Weasley twins fell somewhere short of that; but still did well nonetheless. If I told you I was excited about returning to the Dursley residence for the summer; I'd be lying, but life must go on. Our group reached the train with little difficulty and boarded our trunks. We got on board the train just before it took off. We quickly found a compartment and sat down.

There was something about Lockhart's article in the paper that baffled me… "Hermione?" I asked.  
"Yes Harry?" She asked back.  
"Do you know who Sirius Black is?" I asked her.  
"Sirius Black?"  
"Seriously!" I yelled. This brought lots of laughter from the others in the cart; from Fred and George playing a game of Exploding Snap against Ron and Riley, to Hermione, her nose as buried in a book as always.  
"Well. Ok… Sirius Black was a man who was sent to Azkaban for killing thirteen people with a single curse. And… and…" She said, but it seemed that she couldn't finish the sentence.  
"And what Hermione? Spit it out!" I said urgently.  
"He was the man who got your parents killed." She said meekly.  
I was shocked. I didn't know what to say next. The man who turned my parents in to Voldemort was sitting in a prison cell. Why was he not dead? I wanted to find him, to torture him, to ask him why he did this. NO! This isn't me. Anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side of the force. I don't ever want to cross that line. That would be the last place I want to go. I sat in deep meditation for the remainder of the ride home; trying to purge my mind of the thoughts I experienced previously. It partly worked, I was greatly upset to hear about him; but I knew it was for the best. If he was out of jail, who knows what he would do. The train landed in the station and we got off, gathered our trunks, and walked out of Platform 9 and ¾. As usual, Mr. Granger was there waiting for us to walk out of the brick column. He greeted us warmly, gave the girls a hug, and started walking out of the King's Cross Station. The car trip home was quiet, save for the Owls hooting every now and then. As we drove up to Privet Drive, Mr. Granger drove up to the fourth house and stopped to help me get my things out of the trunk and walk inside. I thanked him and waved back at the girls as he got back into the car and parked in the driveway of the next house down. I walked inside the house and placed my magical objects in my old room which happened to be right by the front door, locked the latch, and walked upstairs to put away my clothes and toiletries.

-BREAK—

About two weeks later, I received a letter from Jace requesting that I meet with him the next day. I knew that the Dursleys would not even notice that I was gone. They barely even notice my existence here and when they go out, they conveniently leave me behind; not that I mind of course. Them gone would mean that I have the television to myself, something that only happened when they were away or at 3 AM (which happens to me more times than you would think thanks to the tape recorder Uncle Dursley invested in three years ago). I grabbed an old ink pen and a sheet of notebook paper from off of the ground and wrote a hasty reply and gate it to Hedwig. I opened the window and watch her fly off into the night sky. I sank back into my bed and fell asleep shortly afterward. The next morning, I awoke to find that Hedwig was sitting on the window ledge staring out into the side lawn.

"Hedwig, what's going on?" I said sleepily as I sat up and reached for my glasses; pulling them on, I saw that Jace has planeswalked onto the roof of the Granger home once again. I raised the window and called out to him.  
"Harry, nice to see you. Have you been enjoying you summer?" He asked as he jumped down from the roof onto the grass.  
"Fine, I guess. What's up?" I called down to him as I climbed out of the window to sit on the ledge outside the house.  
"Special Jedi training, Master Yoda requested that you be at the Jedi temple today. Anakin and Obi-Wan are going on a special mission and he wants you to go along. We need to see if you can do so."  
"Uhh… Sure. I'll come outside." I said.  
"Don't you need to tell your Aunt or Uncle where you'll be? Wouldn't they be concerned for you?"  
"No, they'd actually be glad if I disappeared for a few days. Hermione and Riley, on the other hand…" This seemed to upset the professor greatly, but regained his composure quickly.  
"Well then, you might want to tell them where you'll be going. You won't need to bring anything save your lightsaber." He said as I climbed back into my room and walked down the stairs and outside. Jace met me where he was standing last I saw him. I motioned to him as I walked up to the Granger home and knocked on the door a few times. After a few moments, Mrs. Granger answered the door.

"Oh, hi Harry. How have you been?" She asked happily, looking at Jace, who looked quite strange pacing on the sidewalk in ordinary muggle clothes. "Who's your friend?"  
"A school teacher. And the reason I came here; can I talk to the girls for a minute?"  
"Sure. I'll go get them." She said as she ushered me in to the house and walked up the stairs. After a few minutes, Riley, followed by Hermione walked down the flight of stairs that was to the left of the hallway leading up to the front door.

"Hi Harry!" Hermione said as she rushed into the hallway where I was standing.  
"Hey, what's up?" Riley asked as she approached me behind her twin sister.  
"Guys, I'm going to be going somewhere for a few days, I might not be back for up to a week. I'll come see you as soon as I get back home, alright?" I said.  
"Where are you going?" Riley asked with a somewhat concerned look on her face.  
"Uhh…" I said, struggling for the right words, "Special Jedi mission. Don't really know much about it yet, which is why I'm not sure how long I'm going to be gone for."  
"Alright, but be careful, ok Harry?" Hermione asked.  
"Sure. I'll take good care of myself. You'll see." I said confidently. I would soon realize that I overshot that statement by a kilometer; not knowing of the very eminent danger I would soon put myself in as I took Jace's left arm and planeswalked into the Blind Eternities.


	17. The Mission

Sorry about the long wait for the chapter guys, it's been, whew, nearly six weeks since I uploaded the last one. I'm going to have to stop making a habit of that. Anyway, on with the show… err… story.

-BREAK—

As we walked out of the blind eternities into Coruscant, I couldn't help but notice the beauty of the towering structures that I had familiarized myself with over the last two years; from the tall towers of the Jedi Temple to the large domed roofs of the Senate Building. I followed Jace, who was confidently striding up the tall set of stairs that led to the main entrance of the temple. Upon entering the massive building, I saw the blue mage walk towards a different set of elevators than the ones commonly used to access the training grounds.

"Wait, shouldn't we be using those?" I asked as I caught up to him while pointing to the lifts previously mentioned.  
"Not today. Today, we are going to give you a test of sorts, to see if you are fit to fly a fighter pilot on your own." The professor said, pressing one of the many buttons on the interior of the small cable car. Instead of going up or down like I thought it would, the elevator show backwards for a full five seconds before turning around and coming to a stop. The door opened to reveal Obi-Wan, Anakin, and his Padawan Ahsoka standing in front of a large, metal box. There were several of these in a row in the room behind them. They were all solid black, except for a small blue access pad and a white sliding door. We stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the three figures standing in front of us.

Obi-Wan greeted us and said "Harry, it's good to see you, although I wish it were under better circumstances."  
I paused before issuing my reply. "What circumstances?" I asked, confused.  
The Jedi Knight answered with a grim look on his face. "Unfortunately, Chancellor Palpatine has been kidnapped. The Jedi Council has asked me and Anakin to rescue him. Now I know that it might be a bit much for a first mission, but I would be grateful if you could join us; the Council can't spare anyone else to help."  
After only a moment's thought, I answered "I'm in. What do I have to do?"  
A smile crept up on my master's face as he said "I thought you'd never ask." He motioned to me to follow him as he turned around and walked at a brisk pace to the metal box behind him. It was much taller than I had originally estimated. It was twice as tall as Obi-Wan and a bit longer.

"What exactly is this thing?" I asked as I approached the box.  
"This, Harry," he said, "Is a spacecraft training system. What you'll do is, you'll go inside, climb inside the Jedi fighter and a simulation will start. Depending on your results, you just might be able to come along with us." He then entered a short code into the access pad as the door slid open with a soft humming noise. I walked inside to find a solid-white Jedi spacecraft facing a projection screen to the right of me. I climbed up the small ladder and sat down. I closed the cockpit on the ship and the lights quickly dimmed and went out. The screen lit up with an image of a solid black expanse with white dots scattered around it. On the upper-right corner of the screen, a large green-blue planet took up most of the space. The control panel and steering stick glowed green as a female voice began giving instructions on how each of the buttons worked and on the virtual mission I was about to embark on. If I succeeded, then I would be clear to go one the mission with the two Jedi. If not, I would return safe and sound to Privet Drive. I must be a glutton for punishment I thought as the instructions stopped and the simulator gave me control of the fighter.

-BREAK—

About fifteen minutes later, I emerged from the simulator very pleased with myself. I passed the tests. I even got to customize my fighter. It would be solid black, save for a white stripe running through the middle of the ship and a small white Galactic Republic symbol on the edge of either wing. The astromech droid I would be given as an aid for this and further missions had a black dome, except for the miscellaneous red and blue lights. The body and legs were the standard white. It was supposed to be a new, high end, top of the line R3 unit. I've heard about these previously from some of the other padawans in the temple in passing. They were supposed to perform simple and complex operations faster than the previous runs of R2 units. The unit number was R3-A4, one of the first runs of R3 units produced. I met the others a few steps away from the simulator, sitting in chairs obviously conjured by Jace. They were glowing blue and had speckles and streaks of milky white running through it.

"I recently received a bit of news that you might already know, but you need not say anything. I have already given orders to my fleet to prepare for launch, we were just waiting for you. We shall leave immediately." Obi-wan said as he arose from his chair.  
"Alright then." I said, half to myself, but I had a feeling the others heard me.  
"I should tell you, we are going to have to land in an enemy ship to retrieve the Chancellor. I trust in your ability to handle that without major incident." He said as he started walking towards the elevator that I had used to come into this room. He pushed a button on the wall outside as the doors promptly slid open to reveal the small interior. He pushed another button on the inside as the elevator slid up and out. After a few moments, the door opened to reveal a massive hangar filled with all sorts of spacecraft; from enormous cargo ships and Y-wing bombers to smaller, more versatile Jedi starfighters and even a few prototype X-wing fighters. A clone wearing orange-striped armor walked up to Obi-Wan and asked if we were ready for takeoff. When he replied in an affirmative, he snapped to attention for a moment before running off, telling anyone he came across to spread the word. After a minute of walking towards our fighters, we heard a voice on the intercom system telling everyone to prepare for takeoff. A moment later we were standing in front of the four fighters we would be flying in. It was then that I noticed Jace was missing from our small group. When I turned around to look to the elevator door, he was sitting there in another one of his conjured chairs, obviously waiting for us to leave before making his disappearance.

-BREAK—

About an hour later, we were detaching from our hyperspace rings in the airspace of Geonosis Three, one of the main headquarters of the Confederacy. We had come out of hyperspace far enough away to where we had a good vantage point of the enemy ships still not landed yet, but far enough away to where we were invisible to their radar systems and well out of the vision of any droids.

"You remember the plan, Harry, don't you?" I heard Obi-Wan ask from our radio connection.  
"Yeah. We fly relatively peacefully into their ships. Grevious wants you and Anakin alive, so he won't risk shooting at us. Once inside, me and Ahsoka find the main control panel to shut down all of the droids within communication range while you confront the general." I replied. The official plans were much, much more complex than that, but that was the simplified version.  
"To put it bluntly, yes." Obi-Wan agreed with my sub-conscience.

A minute of flying later, I came on the intercom and commanded: "Grey Squadron one, get behind me in V-formation." All according to plan.

Just as we came into easy view of the enemy ships, they conveniently had squads of droid ships in the air even before we came out of hyperspace. General Grievous wanted Obi-Wan and Skywalker to attempt to capture the Chancellor so that he could kill them. All according to plan.

The droid ships flew rapidly closer to us and tried to engage. They managed to pick off a few clone ships, but they were all demolished in some form. All according to plan.

We flew steadily closer to the ships. They were all somewhat unguarded, or guarded foolishly. We flew past the guns on the ships, even though none of them shot at us. All according to plan.

All of the Zero-G clamps were in place in all but one ship. That was the target. I ordered my squadron to land inside the large craft. All according to plan.

Inside the hangar of the flagship, there were a few droids guarding any entrances to the hangar. Nothing much, but adequate to maintain order. All according to plan.

As soon as we exited our spacecraft and the others landed, we split up, Obi-Wan and Anakin heading towards the bridge, while Ahsoka and I headed for the control room. All according to plan.

We walked a while, searching each door and crack in the wall for anything that might shut down the droids, but to no avail. After a long while, we found it. It was a large room with long, narrow platforms leading to a control panel with the hyperdrive unit looming in the background, attached to the opposite wall. All according to plan.

Just as we were walking up to said control panel, we heard two feet land on the ground with some force followed by the familiar humming noise that signaled the activation of a lightsaber. Most definitely not according to plan.

We turned around to find a tall, bald woman in the traditional Jedi robes, except that they were grey. She had an unusually long neck that would make Aunt Petunia jealous and a set of tattoos that ran from her cheeks down her neck and disappeared into her robes. She carried two red lightsabers, one in each hand, that looked like they could attach to each other by the other ends. The ends of her weapons were curved to suggest that they were indeed meant to connect.

"Well, if it isn't the hairless harpy." Ahsoka drawled in a hateful tone.  
"Well, if it isn't Skywalker's useless little pet; and a friend it seems." The strange woman replied in an equal tone. I drew my lightsaber and activated it. Ahsoka got the message and did the same to hers. It was green, a color that slightly less common color than my blue, but could still slice you in two if you weren't careful.

We stood there, speechless for a moment, staring at each other. It was then that I attacked. I had to jump over my fellow Togruta apprentice somewhat to do so, but it provided an excellent angle at which to strike. It worked almost perfectly, had she not looked up and blocked my strike at the last second; no doubt she would be laying on the ground in pieces by now. Ahsoka once again took the message and commenced the attack with me, wordlessly coinciding our attacks to get as much of the Sith woman's attention diverted to each other as possible. After some time of trading blows as such, she jumped high and to her rear, performing a backflip that Ron would marvel at for minutes, and flung herself out from the wall straight towards Ahsoka. I saw it happen a second too late. The twin red blades of the assassin sliced her green lightsaber hilt in two as she used the force to push her against the opposite wall. Ahsoka slumped unconscious against it, propped up slightly, but she would be out until I subdued the assassin; or killed her, of course.

"Now, who's next?" She said in a menacing voice as she stood up and rounded on me. She deactivated one of her lightsabers, sending it up in the air as she ran straight for me at a blazing speed. I jumped upwards, hoping that I would be clear of her upward slash. I was, but I barely had time to deactivate the other lightsaber she had turned on in midair. It fell to the ground in three pieces as I straightened out and turned around once more. Again, she was running at me at full speed. I pointed my lightsaber at hers just in time to block her furious strike, she was successful in her attempt to knock me off balance, but it came at a heavy price. Before I fell, I managed to slice extremely close to the left side of her body. I heard a sickening cry emit from the assassin as I stood up to look at her. Her right arm was detached from her body, laying to the side a few feet away. Her lightsaber, on the other hand, was in her left. I took a step closer to her and placed the tip of my deactivated lightsaber to her forehead and said

"Game over. I win." Somehow I knew that, if I had to, I could not kill the woman, even though I knew nothing about her and that she attacked me and Ahsoka without warning.  
"You can't kill me, boy. You know it yourself. You have anger, you have hate; but you don't use them." She sneered as she sat up.  
"Of course I do. The thing is there, is that I don't use them. You did, and look just where that got you." I remarked, realizing a little too late that my smart mouth might get me into trouble again.

To the innocent droid bystander, it might have appeared that a early teenage boy was kneeling down by their beloved commander Asajj Ventress; a lightsaber to her forehead. Then all at once Ventress' remaining arm shot up, activated lightsaber in hand just as the boy activated the lightsaber, instantly killing her. Then a chunk of the boy's arm fell to the bloody floor and he screamed out in pain, clutching his arm as the rest of him disappeared in a brilliant flash of blue light.

-END CHAPTER—

Wow, that felt really good. Nice to see you guys again! I've been noticing that I REALLY like writing cliffhangers into my works of fiction…


	18. The Healing

A/N: Ok guys, I'm really excited to see what exactly happens to Harry after the epic cliffhanger that was Chapter 17.

I felt a gush of pain rip from my arm throughout the rest of my body. I had the sense that I was planeswalking somewhere, as if Jace was bringing me to or from Coruscant for the training. But no, this was different. This time, I felt like I was going to die. That this would be the end; the pain in my arm was excruciating. I knew that I was not supposed to feel fear, but it was natural, I couldn't help myself. I'll admit it, I was scared for my life that day. But I survived. After several weeks, I rebounded, better than ever; but that comes later. Now, spiraling blue lines scattered on the edge of my vision as I sat up from where I found I was laying. Covered in blood, I looked at the stump that was formerly my right arm. It was severed just above the elbow and there was what looked like a bone set a few inches inside. I panicked. I knew that it was only natural, nothing to be ashamed of. I looked around at the room I was in, wondering what exactly happened to get me here. From my vantage point, I could see a white battle droid on the ground in pieces behind what looked like a control panel, as if one would use it to steer the spacecraft. Then I realized it was; Skywalker was sitting on a large chair while Obi-Wan stood behind, watching over him. Behind me, I heard the blast doors slam shut. That could mean several things. Obi-Wan looked behind him, obviously wary of the same sound I was. He looked down at me and instantly was kneeling at my side.

"Harry, what happened?" He asked as he stood up and began to look for something.  
I let out a small gasp as I asked "What's going on here? What are you looking for?"  
"Something to seal up that arm of yours, if we don't you could suffer serious damage. If we waited too long, we might not be able to get a prosthetic done."  
"Wait, a prosthetic? You mean like a robot arm?" I asked, confused as well as shocked and drained.  
"To put it bluntly, yes." The Jedi master answered.  
"Ok. What happened? Why am I here?" I asked.  
"I was just about to ask you the same thing. Perhaps we should take it up with Professor Beleren to learn more about this." It seemed he finally found what he was looking for, because Obi-Wan came over to me and knelt down. He had a metal ring in his hand and what looked like a syringe. "This might hurt a bit, but I assume it couldn't get worse." I had to agree; it couldn't be much worse than it is now. Without further ado, he stuck the needle part of the syringe into my arm and drew out a bit of blood. He then put the needle into the metal ring and pushed the handle. The ring turned red as he stuck it to my arm. Instantly, much of the pain was relieved and I had a feeling that thing had saved my life.

"What's that for?" I asked, suddenly calm.  
"That was a prosthetic extension. Once we get back to the temple, we can measure you for a, as you put it, a robot arm. We will have to knock you out to do so, but I'd imagine you'll find it worth it."  
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind a bit."

"Obi-Wan, get over here now!" I heard Anakin shout from his place in the pilot's seat. "We're coming in too hot and too steep, I need some help if you don't feel like dying today!"  
I chucked a bit. That was good, I'll have to remember that one.

I layed back down on the hard steel floor and slowly fell asleep, knowing that there was a problem, but too tired to do anything about it.

-BREAK—

Seemingly a moment later, I awoke in what looked like a bacta tank. I had a oxygen mask connected to my face. It was freezing in here. The fluid was disgusting. I'd heard about this, but I never thought it could be this bad. I heard a few shouts as the tank lid opened over my head and I was dragged out with the harness I was wearing. I slid the mask off of my face as I grabbed a set of brown Jedi robes to slip on over the special bacta overalls I was dressed in. A Kaminoan healer motioned me to follow her into another room, which contained a bed and a small counter that had a large stack of books piled on top of it. Only Hermione would have that many books crammed onto such a small surface.

"How are you doing, Harry?" I heard a voice ask from behind me. Speaking of Hermione, I turned around and much to my surprise, Hermione, along with Riley and Ron were sitting on a long bench. She jumped up and instantly ran up to me and hugged me in a vice grip. I hugged her back for a long moment before separating.  
"Fine thanks, but, there is a small problem. Ron, Riley, I know you two will think this is really cool, and Hermione, as for you, I honestly think you might pass out." I heard Riley chuckle at this remark.  
"Well, what is it?" She asked, obviously concerned over what grim news I might tell her.  
"Harry, I'll make you a deal. Five galleons says that she won't pass out." Riley said as she and Ron got up from the bench simultaneously to walk over to where we were.  
"I'll take you up on that offer." I said, motioning to her with my left arm.  
I think Hermione had figured it out at this point because she asked nervously, "Harry… why can't I see your other hand?"  
"Oh boy. Long story short, some crazy assassin woman chopped it clean off while I was on the mission." I said confidently.  
"Well, why, for some reason, do I not believe you?" She asked, slightly angry.  
"Because this is why." I said as I held up my right arm, which still only had the metal ring attached to it. Much to Riley's surprise, Hermione stared at my arm shocked for a moment before closing her eyes and collapsing onto the floor.  
"Mr. Potter, I do believe I owe you lunch." Riley said as she helped me and Ron pick her up and place her on the bed.  
"I'll take you up on that offer later. But first, I have to get me a prosthetic arm."  
"Prosthetic? You mean like a robot? Dad's been obsessing over them recently." Ron said.  
"Yeah, something like that, why?" I asked.  
"Wicked…" Ron said, just like he did the day we met on the Hogwarts Express.  
"How did you get here?" I asked. I've been asking questions to the people who should be asking questions, I thought. Ironic.  
"Professor Beleren said it was an emergency. He brought us into what he called the Blind Eterneties. It was a pretty cool place. Really cool actually. It had pictures of countless worlds I didn't even know existed!" Ron said in almost a shout.  
"Yeah. I was like that the first time I saw it too, it is really cool. What did you think of it Riley?"  
"The same as Ron, but I thought that the earth was much larger than that." She replied.  
"Now that, I think, is just an illusion." I said.

The conversation continued for some time like that. Finally, Hermione woke up about half an hour before Jace came calling to bring them back to their respective homes. As I soon realized, the process of growing a prosthetic arm was extremely long and laborious. I was informed that I might be here another week at least. It was… interesting, to say the least, but by July 30th, the day before my birthday, I was safely back at Number 4 Privet Drive with a very angry aunt and uncle and a wicked looking prosthetic arm.

-END CHAPTER—

Sorry it was so short, but as you can tell, the point of this one was to heal Harry's arm. No offense to anyone who didn't like it, but… offense offense offense.


	19. The Knight Bus, sort of

A/N: Hi all! Hopefully the updates will be posted as soon as possible, so don't worry about me taking too long. I plan on posting one chapter a week, possibly on Saturday or Sunday. Without further ado, let us begin!

-START CHAPTER-

I was standing in front of Number 4 Privet Drive, what I was being forced to call my home in this point of time. I wondered how the Dursleys would receive me after being gone for a week or more. How would they react to my having a metallic arm? So many other question buzzed around in my head as I stood in front of the door, contemplating wether I should go in or not. Where else would I go? There was the girl's house next door, but I'm still unsure if they would take me in, after all, my family lived in the next house down. I sighed as I walked up to the door and tried opening it. It was locked. I looked towards the driveway, thinking that they were gone; but no, the blue-green company car was parked in plain sight. I gave a gentle knock on the door, hoping that someone would hear me and let me in. After a few moments, I tried again. Still nothing. I remember leaving the window to my room open before leaving for Coruscant to go on the mission. So I walked to the side lawn inbetween my and the girl's homes. As I suspected, the window was open, leaving me free to jump in (although I admit with some difficulty, but size matters not, hmm?). I walked over to the door to the upstairs hallway and opened it. There was an abnormally large amount of plates each containing a small serving of food. Hm, I thought, they must have thought I was still up here. So there will be no problem explaining why I was gone to them. I stepped over the mass of plates and bowls and made my way downstairs. The normal Dursley family was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching the television that was housed inside a small entertainment system that also held most of Dudley's video games. As I stepped down onto the bottom stair, the three of them all jerked their heads and looked my way. I saw a grimace on Uncle Vernon's face as he got up to walk my way. I had faced hordes of battle droids in the simulations, I had faced a sith assassin and lived; twice. I had taken down a basilisk without my lightsaber. But nothing in this whole multiverse could have prepared me for the look on my uncle's face as he got up to stomp his way across the small room to face me where I stood. I gulped as I saw his face redden until it's color was redder than a beet. He stood there, seething for a few moments, before saying:

"POTTER! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING LOCKED UP IN YOUR ROOM FOR THE PAST WEEK?"  
"I wasn't in my room. I had to leave, something came up."  
"And you couldn't even tell your only family goodbye?" He said, still apparently angry.  
"I didn't think you'd care I was gone, so I didn't bother." I replied shyly.  
"DIDN'T THINK WE'D CARE? Who do you think had to do the dishes while you were off doing God knows what?"  
"Uhh… the dishwasher?" I said in an attempt to make an honest answer. I knew for a fact that it was true; when I would be busy doing another one of the dozens of chores I had after meals, Aunt Petunia would fill up the machine and put it running.  
"WHY YOU!" Uncle Vernon started, but he didn't finish his thought, mostly on my behalf. I used my right hand to force push him against the wall, although it didn't quite have the power my other would, it got the message across clearly: I was not a force to be reckoned with. I held him there for a moment before slowly walking up to him and physically grabbed him where I had pinned him against the wall: the base of his neck.

"Now. I'd hate to have to choke you to death, so I'll make this quick. I was not locked up in my room; I was risking my neck for an interplanar ruler that was kidnapped. I faced off against an assassin with weapons similar to mine. You see this?" I asked, pulling out my lightsaber and activating it. I took my hand off Vernon's neck and placed the blade inches away from it. "This little thing could chop your head clean off if I so much as trip. I suggest you be careful when getting on my nerves. Anger is an emotion I would rather not experience as it could cause damage to not just you, but everyone else in this whole block."

Suddenly, a solid black owl came swooping down the stairway and landed on the coffee table in the living room. It had a small scroll attached to its left leg and was staring at me impatiently, obviously wanting to be rid of its burden and to return to its master. I deactivated my lightsaber and walked across to where the bird was perched. It extended its leg to me and I plucked the parchment off of him and it gladly took off, aiming for the stairs.

I unrolled the letter to reveal some form of permission slip for visiting a small village called Hogsmeade during the next school year. It was from Hogwarts, signed in Professor McGonagall's signature. I heard about Hogsmeade before. It claimed to be the only completely magical town in Great Briton. There was a solid black line where either Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia was to write their names.

"Ah, speaking of the force, I might as well try it." I said, muttering the phrase to myself. The "it" in question happened to be a form of Jedi Mind Trick. It had a much stronger effect than the general purpose ones, but required much more force power to use properly. I walked over to where my uncle was still paralyzed against the wall, staring at my hand. I waved my hand over his face and said "You will sign this form."

After a moment's struggle apparent on his face, he reluctantly said "I will sign this form." He walked over to the kitchen where a cup full of ink pens was kept in case of emergencies such as these. I heard a scribble on the parchment and he straightened up from his stooped stance over the counter and walked back to me. He then handed the form to me as Aunt Petunia promptly fainted, as if on cue to her seeing my metal hand. I sighed. I should prepare for this in the future. I walked upstairs and gave the letter to Hedwig to return to Hogwarts with. I exited the house with the intent of visiting Hermione and Riley, to check up on them and mainly to inquire about this mysterious letter. I knew it was a permission slip of some sort having to do with Hogsmeade, but what? I knocked on the door, trying to hide my right hand in my long Jedi robes. Their mother answered it, she smiled and without saying a word to me called the girls down. Once again, as before, they came clambering down the stairs at once. Hermione was the first to reach the door, Riley nearly knocking the both of them to the floor in her haste to get to the door. Riley thanked their mother as the girls walked outside and closed the door. Almost instantly, Hermione jumped forward, compressing me into a tight hug. I returned the favor. After a few moments, she released her grip as I loosened mine.

"Well, that's quite a hello there." I said. She blushed and agreed with me.

After a few minutes of small talk and my retelling of the event that had recently taken place inside the fourth house on the street, I inquired about the strange letter.

"Yeah Harry, it's for visiting rights to Hogsmeade. We'll get to go on certain weekends from now on." Riley replied.  
"Well ok, I just quite literally tricked my uncle into signing it for me; I didn't even know what it was for." I said.

Hermione let out a small giggle before saying "Yeah, we'll get to go down to the village on certain weekends, I hear they have quite the shopping district, there's Honeydukes candy shop for one, and I hear they have an excellent bookstore there."  
"Hermione, you and your books huh? Of all the things you could do there, you chose a visit to the bookshop." I said, to much laughter from myself and the girls. This continued for some time, us generally goofing off and visiting. It was not until that night that I returned to number four to learn that Vernon's sister, Marge, would be visiting in a few days.

-BREAK—

Two weeks later, Uncle Vernon said it was time to go and pick up Aunt Marge from the airport her flight was coming into. Aunt Petunia elected to stay here with me and Dudley, who was currently digging his face into a blueberry pie, rather than accompany him. Before he left, he said a few quick words to my aunt, who nodded approvingly and patiently waited until he walked out the doorway and shut it behind him before standing up and saying

"I'll be going for a walk for a few moments, if you two boys promise not to kill each other in the time I'll be gone, you can stay." I thought I detected a hint of sarcasm in her voice, what with me "learning" the ways of the prank under Fred and George, I considered myself to be an expert in that field. Nonetheless, she wordlessly followed her husband out the door. Scarcely ten minutes later, she returned, with Hermione following behind her.

"Vernon said that this one would keep you in line boy, so we've been forced to invite her to make sure of that." Aunt Petunia said, letting go of Hermione's hand and walking back over to the kitchen.

"Hey, so… uh, I guess you'll be eating here tonight then?" I asked in an attempt to make conversation.  
"Yeah, I guess so." She replied.  
"Riley's jealous much?"  
"Not really, she's actually glad I'm gone, she's confident that I still like you." Was her reply. I gulped, not thinking we would get to that subject.  
"Wait, what do you mean still?" I asked.  
She punched my arm playfully and said "Oh come on, you'd honestly believe her? We're just friends, right?"  
"Yeah, right." I agreed. By this time Hermione's face was turning a light pink shade and I was confident that mine did to. I looked behind her to see Dudley looking up from his pie, staring at us. Hermione apparently noticed something was up and asked

"Anything wrong?"  
"No, just Dudley." I said, and then loud enough for my cousin to hear, "Go back to your pie, there's nothing to look at here."

This brought a small laugh from Hermione and a gulp from Dudley as he ducked his head down and continued to eat the pie in question, albeit much more carefully since there was a guest over.

-BREAK—

Three hours later, I was safely inside one of the upper rooms of the Leaky Cauldron Hotel, the events that put me here still buzzing around in my mind.

**START FLASHBACK**

Soon after Uncle Vernon pulled the car into the driveway and helped Marge unload her bags, he took me aside and said

"I'm warning you now boy, although you might have that girl here to keep that temper of yours down, if you act up, I'll lock you in your room without so much of a second thought." I think he was trying to make it sound like a threat, but seeing as I could cut through almost anything with my lightsaber, I merely had to acknowledge the fact that if that happened, I would have to sneak my meals while the family was gone. Just as Aunt Petunia was starting to serve the plates for the meal, she got out two extra ones, reason being the guests we had over. She called everyone to the table, of whom Dudley was (to no one's surprise) the first one to sit down. He had obviously cleaned his face of the half of a blueberry pie that was stained on it not ten minutes previous. We had wordlessly, after everyone was at the table and Marge had been introduced to Hermione by Aunt Petunia, started eating. Aunt Marge, as it turned out, was just as bad as the rest of the family, and I could've sword I saw Hermione's face pale as she gave some of the comments about me that she did. About halfway into the meal, Aunt Marge had shattered her glass accidentally, blaming it on her firm grip. Uncle Vernon had asked me to clean up the mess.

I had got up from my chair to walk around to the other side of the small, circular table and started to scoop up the shards of glass with my left hand, knocking them into my right, which was well hidden by a glove that I had found in the garage. Although it looked as if it was made for working on a car, it still got the job done. When Aunt Marge had inquired into the matter, Uncle Vernon had said that I injured my hand and it had left a really nasty scar, one that I apparently wanted to cover up while company was over. It was true in one account, I had injured my hand, and yes, it did leave a scar, but I would have preferred not to talk about it.

As I went to throw the shards of glass into the garbage bin, I heard Aunt Marge ask

"So what did his father do?"  
"He didn—" Aunt Petunia started, but Hermione finished the sentence for her.  
"He was in law enforcement."  
"And how do you know that missy?" She asked.  
"I do a lot of research, trust me." Was Hermione's reply. That seemed to satisfy Marge, so she didn't further inquire into that matter.  
But she did beat around that bush and ask about my mother just as I was sitting down. "No no, it wasn't his father, it was the mother, if there's something wrong with the mother, then there's something wrong with the pup."  
"Shut up, don't you dare talk about my mother that way." I said firmly.  
"Now, what would you know about your parents? They had their car accident when you were only a year old; left you that nasty scar too." 

**END FLASHBACK**

This is where I get really, really angry, and trust me, I made it sound prettier than it looked.

**RESUME FLASHBACK**

"Listen to me, they didn't have a car wreck, they were murdered." I said forcibly.  
"By whom, I might ask, who killed you parents in your imaginary world were well, who knows, magic might really exist." I looked over to Hermione, who just so happened to do the same thing. "Oh come on, you're going to tell me that magic is real? What next? You're going to say that your parents were murdered by some evil dark lord bent on taking over the whole wide world."

After a moment's pause and a chuckle, I said "Yes, that is exactly what I was going to tell you. If magic wasn't real, then I couldn't do this could i? I then started to use the force to lift up her new wine glass and place it on her mouth and tipped it back. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't opened her mouth and the red liquid spilled all over her clothes and the table.

"If magic wasn't real, then I suppose you'd want to explain this?" I said, starting to take the glove off when Hermione stopped me, placing a hand on mine.  
"Harry, please, don't do this, who knows what might happen." She pleaded.  
"Sorry, but I've already started, It'd be good if I finished now." I argued. She then made a huffing noise and slumped back into here chair. I took off the glove, revealing my metallic hand. I lifted it above the table, allowing everyone in the room see me flex the mass of wires and metal that I had recently called by right arm.

"How… how… how is that possible? What are you?" Aunt Marge shrieked, picking up her empty wine glass and proceeded to throw it at me. I ducked just in time to see it shatter on the wall behind where I was standing. She didn't stop there. In her rage, she must have thrown half of the dishes on the table at me in attempt to subdue me. Hermione had already ducked for shelter behind the living room couch, Dudley getting frightened of his Aunt and ran out of the house altogether. Only My aunt and uncle remained at the table by the time she blew up, quite literally I might add.

Her already large frame started expanding and growing, forming a large circular shape similar to that of most balls. She then started to float away, out of the door in the kitchen that led to the backyard, and she went up and away, sailing over the subdivision much like a balloon would; although I doubt a balloon would scream bloody murder the whole time.

I went inside, partially happy that i got Marge to leave, partially upset that I had freaked out Hermione and the Dursleys, who, up until my arrival, had not gotten the chance to have a good look at my arm.

I went into the cupboard under the stairs that had formerly been my room and pulled out all of my magical items, my trunk, my broom, my owl cage for Hedwig, who was currently sleeping on my dresser, why Uncle Vernon had not let me leave this particular item out is beyond me. I took the cage and brought it upstairs, although I had no intention of bringing the bird in the cage, I knew that she would follow me or at least perch on my shoulder if I told her to. I opened my trunk, revealing my wand and a few sets of robes left over from the last year at Hogwarts.

"Harry, what are you doing?" I heard Hermione ask me from the door where I guessed she was standing.  
"I'm leaving. I've had it with these people. School starts in two weeks, right? So I can get a taxi to the Leaky Cauldron and rent a room there until school starts. There was a list of supplies on the Hogsmeade permission slip so I can buy all the things I'll need for the next year." I said as I quickly gathered everything that I needed from here, my books, parchment, quills, ink bottles, and such items that I had already snuck out of the small closet to use. I quickly pack them and what little clothes I had up here into the trunk. I grabbed my lightsaber from my dresser and placed it in the holster. I called Hedwig and went back downstairs. I knew I was not thinking straight at this point, but it did nothing to stop me in my chosen mission; to get out of here as quickly as possible. School was starting in two weeks, I suppose I could take a taxi from the downtown area of Little Whinging up to London, where I could find the Leaky Cauldron. Or I could just fly there, I knew that London was somewhere south of here, but finding the pub based on that would be nearly impossible. Hermione followed me downstairs and just as I was walking out the door, rolling my trunk behind me, I felt Hermione grab my arm.

"Please don't do this, Harry. Don't leave us, don't leave me." She pleaded.  
I thought about my current predicament, wondering if Hermione was right, either way, I would have to get out of here. "I'm sorry Hermione, but I need somewhere to go to be alone; I need some time to think. I know that it won't be the same as me being here, but I can write to you and Riley, right?"  
She sobbed and wordlessly nodded her head. We had been inseparable since we were eight years old, I knew that this would wrack her conscience, making her think it was her fault.

"Listen to me Hermione. It's not your fault, this, right? This is all on me, ok? I promise I won't do anything stupid. I'll go straight to the Leaky Cauldron and send you a letter saying i arrived as soon as I get settled in, ok?"  
"Alright Harry, but please, do take care of yourself." She said and gave me a hug that lasted longer than was normal. It seemed to have had a calming effect on her, because after we let go, her face was not stained with tears anymore.  
"I will, I promise." I whispered into her ear and walked away.

**END** **FLASHBACK**

Ah, I forgot to write that letter I promised. I got out of the bed I was currently occupying and scribbled a note on a sheet of parchment and gave it to Hedwig to deliver to Hermione. No doubt she already told Riley about what had happened earlier. I opened the window and let the snowy white owl fly off into the London night.

END CHAPTER

Phew, that one was really long *checks word count* GASP! This one is twice as long as normal; hope it was worth the wait guys! Also, I like the reviews, so keep 'em coming!


	20. Diagon Alley and Hogwarts Express

A/N: Well, here we are, the big 2-0! I know that it's nothing to get excited about, seeing as we're only 2/7 way through this part of the story, but I always thought I was a landmark episode/chapter when I got to a multiple of 10. Anyway, ramblings aside, on with the story!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, Star wars, or Magic: the Gathering. If I did, wouldn't I be publishing this instead of posting it on a free site?

START CHAPTER

The next morning, August 28th, I awoke early, wanting to get a head start on my shopping for the next school year, which was to be starting in 4 days. I was glad to be rid of the horrid company of the Dursleys, but sad to have treated Hermione how I did. I knew that I upset her no matter how gently I put it. It was something I had to do. I knew it, no doubt she knows it too. But this is not the time to muse on past events. I needed to get going if I was going to beat the morning crowd. I quickly donned my black school robe rather than the brown Jedi ones to not attract attention. I went downstairs and ordered a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs from Tom, the pub's manager. It was one of the few breakfast foods I truly loved. I ate quickly, wanting to get to Madame Malkin's robe shop for a pair of gloves before anybody could see my hand. I got up from the barstool I was sitting on and moved towards the back of the small pub. Greeting me in the back room was a solid brick wall. I tried to remember the sequence Hermione had memorized probably years before she ever needed it and after a few tries, I finally got it. The bricks moved themselves so that I could walk in-between them without a problem. Behind the archway was the longest street I had ever seen, and oddly enough, the one that I was most acquainted with. I walked as fast as I could without running towards the robe shop; and when I got there, the plump old woman greeted me with a smile and asked what she could do for me.

"Before I try on new robes, I need a pair of gloves; black leather preferably if you have it."  
"Hm, quite an odd request Mr. Potter, but nonetheless, I think I have just what you're looking for." She said before walking into the back of the store and rummaging through was undoubtedly a large stack of boxes that held all sorts of apparel. After about three minutes, she was content and brought out a large pair of gloves just as I had described.

"I just got these in last month. What you do is you slip them on and they reshape themselves to fit your hand perfectly. Why don't you try one?" She said as she handed the gloves to me. I tried on the left one and it worked just as she had promised, the overly large gloves shrunk themselves down to match my hand in a very comfortable fit. I walked around for a moment, observing the coat hangers' size markings, trying to find ones that would fit better than the ones I had bought two years ago. While Malkin wasn't looking, I slipped the other obese glove onto my right hand, hiding all evidence that I was not entirely flesh and bone. After just another moment, I found the right sized robes I was looking for. I promptly grabbed six of the long black garments and brought them over to the counter to purchase. Since I had not been to Greengotts yet, I used the money still left in my trunk from last year; which proved to be just enough, leaving only seven sickles and a knut. Afterwards, I took by things and placed them in an expanded bag and walked out of the store, headed for the far end of the alley that the Wizarding bank, Gringotts, was held. As I walked in, I surveyed the long line of counters and goblins perched on them for one with no line. After a few moments, there was an opening in a desk close to the back wall which I walked to quickly. After arriving, I handed the small goblin my key and he motioned me to follow him as he opened the small door on the back wall and walked inside. Almost immediately a section of a wall that ended up being a much larger door came loose from the rest of the building and swung back on its hinges. I walked inside to see one of the railcars sitting on a thin layer of track, the goblin standing by the handrail, waiting for me to climb in. As I did so, the small cart shot forward, quickly headed for the Potter vault. As the cart slowed down, a railing appeared on the edge of the rock ledge so that I might climb onto it and access my multitude of galleons. After I got out, the goblin managed to walk up to the large door and push it open with the help of my key and a bit of magic. I took the small money pouch from out of my bag and stuffed it full of galleons. Content, I walked back to the cart and after my vault was closed, it rocketed back to the entrance of the bank.

I walked out of the bank, placing my money bag into my larger, expanded bag. Aimless so far as to what I would be doing for the rest of the day, I stopped by the small ice cream parlor and greeted Fortescue, the elderly man running it. He seemed delighted to see me as I ordered a chocolate cone with the works. I paid him and walked off with a smile on my face. He was one of those people who made everyone happy just by seeing him; quite an odd trait, but it could be useful. The rest of today and most of the next day happened so fast that I couldn't comprehend what had happened when whenever the Granger family decided to pay the Leaky Cauldron a visit while I was eating supper in one of the small booths. As they passed, I waved over to them, wanting the small family to sit with me. Honestly, they have always been more of a family the last five years that the Dursleys have in all of my now 13. They walked over to where I was sitting and piled themselves into the rest of the booth, Hermione conveniently managing to sit next to me.

"So, how have you been dear?" The mother of the family asked, whom I had recently figured out to be named Emma, something that can really make you feel like an idiot if you go for too long without knowing.  
"Just fine, thanks." I said. I had ordered my food just before they showed up, which would be a peculiar subject seeing as I was ignorant to the fact if they had eaten yet or not. "Have you guys eaten yet? I could order you some when Tom comes back with mine."  
"No thank you Harry," Emma said "We ate before coming here. The girls really wanted to see you before you went to bed." After saying this, Hermione, who was sitting next to me, blushed a scarlet red and said

"Did not mum! It was you and dad's idea!"  
"You sure Hermione?" Riley said "I do recall you specifically asking if we could come here."

The banter and such went on for a while, and, in the end, I had managed to buy a cup of coffee for the adults and butterbeer for the girls, a beverage that I was acquainted with recently, and contrary to the name, was not alcoholic and tasted quite good. Before the Granger family left, they did some minor shopping in the Alley, not enough for all their supplies, but as much as they could before the shops closed for the night. That, of course, meant that they would have to be back either tomorrow or the next day, August 31st, which is really cutting it close if you ask me. Happy with the nights events, I retired to my room, not very eager to greet my Monster Book of Monsters, which had attacked me when I rubbed its hairy spine. A few minutes of fighting with it, which may or may not have included my using a shoe as bait to lure it out from under the bed so that I could stomp on it and subdue it. It had remained dormant since, but I knew I had to be careful with its spine.

-BREAK—

On the morning of September 1st, I awoke early once again. I knew that I only had to be at the station for eleven, but I wanted to get a head start on the day. I quickly packed up my things into my trunk, placed it by the door, and went downstairs to check out. The old innkeeper welcomed me warmly and asked if I would be leaving this morning. I would have been surprised, but everybody knew that all Hogwarts students left on the first of September, which would happen to be today. I politely agreed and ordered a quick breakfast before I took a taxi down to the station. As I was eating, my trunk glided down the spiral staircase in the corner of the building and landed with a soft thud near the stool on which I was sitting. I looked over at Tom, who gave me a wink and a nod. I thanked him and ate the rest of my breakfast quickly. I looked down at my wristwatch, the time said 9:45. I already wasted enough time, so I quickly jumped off my stool, grabbed my trunk, and walked out of the small pub. There were countless cars zipping up and down the wide street, there were dozens of people walking up and down the sidewalk on the London streetside, all eager to arrive at their destinations safely and quickly.

Soon after stepping outside, I managed to flag down a taxi and asked the driver to bring me to the Kings Cross Station. He wordlessly agreed and I was soon at the doorstep of the train station. I paid him in the necessary muggle money and stepped out of the cab. After acquiring a trolley, I met up with Hermione and Riley, who were standing just outside the portal, waiting for everyone to look away so that they could board the Hogwarts Express. I caught up with them and greeted them gladly.

"Hi Harry!" Hermione greeted me cheerfully. "Come on, we're going to be late!" I once again looked at my watch, which read 10:45. Wow, she was right, we needed to hurry if we were going to get a booth to ourselves, or at least get seats at all. Hermione then took her own trolley and ran into the pillar of bricks, vanishing behind them. Riley went next, mimicking her twin's movements. I followed, reaching my destination just as the engine on the train was being fired up. We wheeled our carts to the back of the gleaming red train to be loaded into the cargo hold and got into the passenger section of it ourselves.

There was only one compartment left that wasn't completely occupied. We never managed to find Ron or the Weasley twins. I imagine that they were in another car entirely. We found a booth whose only member was a sleeping man who had a brown sheet wrapped around his body. The embroidering on his sheet marked him as one Remus J. Lupin, whom Hermione figured was the new Defense teacher.

Thus began my third year of Hogwarts, not knowing what darkness and shadows awaited me in the very near future.


	21. Elite Dementor Task Force

A/N: WHOOHOO! I've got this one up in almost record time (if not breaking that record.)! Anyway, I wanted to get it finished early, as I might not be able to work during the rest of the holidays. I wish a merry Christmas to everyone reading, and I'd love reviews; it'd make a nice Christmas present from my readers to me. Thanks for reading!

As the train pulled out of King's Cross Station, I couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive about the new year. After all, we had a new Defense teacher, and who knows what else either Filch, the Weasley twins, Dumbledore, or even Jace and the Jedi council could concoct. The ride was very uneventful, the three of us, who had been unable to also find Fred and George, were absorbed in our respective thoughts.

It happened gradually. First, the dark stormclouds blocking out the sun. At first I thought it was nothing, but then the whole train froze over, windows forming solid blocks of ice, the interior becoming colder than a winter night, even though it was the beginning of September. Then I really noticed something was up when there were several eerie noises that sounded mysteriously like the train doors opening. A chill swept into the compartment as I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. After several long, anxious moments, the door opened up, revealing a dark figure. It was clothed in tattered black cloth and seemed to be floating on air, as if not possessing legs. It's frame was long and lanky, and what looked like a long, bony hand had opened the door.

I sprang to my feet and activated my lightsaber, swinging it at the strange creature. It had no obvious effect, other than it looking rather annoyed. It moved forward and for a moment I thought I heard a woman screaming before someone behind me cast a spell that shed a white-yellow light in the small room, and the black creature retreating before blacking out entirely.

-BREAK—

When I came to, I was surrounded by not only the girls and the new professor, but also by the three Weasley brothers I had become acquainted with. Hermione, seeing that I was awake, crushed me in a bear hug before I could utter a sound.

"Harry, are you ok? What happened?" She asked in a hurry.  
"I don't know. What was that thing?" I asked, answering a question with a question.  
"That," I heard an older voice saying, possibly that of the new professor, Lupin, "Was a Dementor. Nasty creatures they are. They can completely suck the soul out of a living being. Merely being near one for a lengthy amount of time can drive one mad. Their magic mainly consists of sucking away all of the happy memories a person possesses, leaving those of agony and despair."  
"Whoa, pretty weird." I said. I looked around to see the same compartment I was in before, but sprawled on the ground. "How did I get here?"  
"You fainted, Harry." George started.  
"Sounded pretty nasty the way Hermione put it." Fred finished.

I thought about my current predicament. How much had Lupin seen? I knew that most, if not all, of Hogwarts knew I had extraterrestrial abilities, how long would it take for him to find out? Before I could finish thinking, Lupin handed me a small, brown-black square of something.

"Eat it, it's chocolate. It counteracts the effects of the Dementors." He said. Reluctantly, I ate the candy, instantly glad I had done so. He was right, it had amazing effects.  
"Thanks. I feel loads better now." I stood up and sat down on the row of seats inside of the car. After that, not much was said, other than the discussing of the Dementors and Fred and George swearing up and down that this year wouldn't be as bad as last year.

"I'm not sold on that one, but I'll keep it in mind." Ron said.  
"I'll bet five Galleon's that you can't top what you did two years ago with Filch's cat." I said, thinking that it was true.  
"What did you do to Mrs. Norris?" Lupin asked.  
"Oh, nothing much." Fred started.  
"We just turned her into a pink, fluffy bunny." George finished.  
At this, he let out a large laugh, musing mostly to himself in a quiet fashion "Hmmm, I don't ever think I did something like that with the old Marauders."  
I looked around at each of the juvenile passengers in turn. Was Professor Lupin part of the Marauders?

"Say, professor, you don't happen to know anything about a certain map that may involve said Marauders, would you?" I asked carefully.  
"THE MAP? You've found it?" He asked excitedly.  
"Well…" I started, looking at the Weasley twins to finish my sentence.  
"It was us." They said in unison.  
"We found it in one of Filch's office drawers while we were in there serving detention. He walked out for a bit, just long enough to find an old sheet of parchment." Fred said.  
"Boys, this may be the start of a wonderful year together." Lupin said with a near maniacal grin on his face.

-BREAK—

As the Hogwarts express rolled in to Hogsmeade station, its contents seemed to literally spill onto the pavement beside the tracks. The castle seemed different somehow, like there was a dark presence lurking around it. As we walked to the usually horseless carriages, I noticed that they were not, in fact, horseless. They were solid black and looked like walking skeletons. They were large, taller than myself, with feathered wings.

"Hermione, what are those things on the carriages?" I asked.  
"What things? They pull themselves as always."  
"Don't worry, Harry. You're not going mad. I see them too." Said a dreamy voice from behind me. I turned around to find a silvery haired girl that was possibly a year below me.  
"Who are you?" I asked.  
"She's loon—Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw in second year." Hermione interrupted.  
"Yes, that would be me." Luna said. "Marvelous creatures, aren't they?"  
"Yes, I agree," I agreed "but what are they?"  
"They are Thestrals, Harry. They can only be seen by those who have seen death."  
"Interesting. Who have you seen… er… die?" I asked, slightly curious, but feeling like an idiot for asking.  
"My mother. I was nine years old at the time, she was working on a new spell and her laboratory blew up. The whole house was destroyed, me and my father were lucky to have survived that day. My mother…" She said.  
"It's ok. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." I said.  
"Thank you. If I might be so curious, who's death did you witness?" Luna asked in that dreamy voice she had.  
"An enemy; an assassin. We dueled, I came out alive." I said. Luna seemed shocked for a long while after that. Hermione, however, looked extremely mad for no reason at all. We ended up taking a carriage with her. Me, the Granger twins, and Luna in one, while Ron, the Weasley twins, and Lupin in another. No doubt talking about various pranks they had pulled in the past.

The ride up to the castle was quiet, almost eerily. Nobody had ever been silent for that long in Hogwarts anyway. It was strange. We had to stop at the gate for identification, for some reason. As the sorting was finished, I quickly realized why.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am sadly forced to inform you that the castle is being guarded by Dementors due to the escape of Sirius Black," Came Dumbledore's booming voice at the close of the welcoming speech.

The castle was in panic. Sirius Black escaped? He was the one who got my parents killed by that bastard Voldemort. Wherever he was, if he hadn't been caught by the Ministry by Christmas break, I would find him. And kill him. Hermione had obviously noticed the zoned out, murderous look on my face.

"Harry, listen to me. This isn't your fight. Let the ministry take care of this." She said, pleading with me.  
"No. This is my fight too. Because of him, my life has been a living hell, what with all this "chosen one" nonsense and dealing with the Dursleys." I said, still looking down at the table as it was filling up with food.  
"You don't understand. We have to stay strong, not to lose it because of some lunatic. If we don't, then who knows what Voldemort could do."  
"Voldemort? What do you mean, what could he do? He died twelve years ago, remember? Gave me this." I said, lifting up my long, shaggy hair to reveal the cursed lightning bolt-shaped scar.  
"You're not getting the big picture here. There could be several ways his Death Eaters could bring him back." She replied.  
"Oh, come on Hermione, the Death Eaters have been thanking their lucky stars he's gone. There's no way that they would want to go through the torture of living with him again." I said angrily. I had lost my appetite suddenly and continued "I'm leaving. I need some time to think."

I got up from my chair at the Gryffindor table and stormed out of the Great Hall. I had no intention of leaving the castle grounds, but merely to explore some. After a while, I settled on a ledge overlooking the Black Lake from the fourth floor window. (A/N: On the outside of the window if I was unclear.)

There was not much I could do; but I would have my revenge. I will kill Sirius Black. I dare him to come for me. I'll be waiting.


	22. Introduction to year 3

A/N: Alright, now that we're finally back at Hogwarts for a third time, I've decided to focus on Harry's extracurricular activities, but I will have a few scenes in classes, depending on how much I'll need them. Anyway, let the show begin.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to this story except for the basic storyline.

The next morning, I went down for breakfast hungry. I knew that I had lost my appetite last night because of my fight with Hermione that no doubt that half the castle saw us in the act of. I knew that everyone in the castle saw me force-push the great set of doors that separated the Great Hall from the main castle gate. I knew that some of the student body knew that I possessed such powers, and possibly some of them were still scared of me from the Chamber of Secrets incident last year. I was reluctant to return to the dining hall because of the scene I had caused the night before. My stomach decided for me, and I soon found myself walking down the large set of moving stairs to the hall for breakfast. When I got down, I sat down across from Hermione and tried to talk to her.

"Hermione. Listen, I've done some thinking, I know that I was wrong to think that it is my problem at the moment. He won't be a big deal to me unless he escapes and runs to the castle. I guess, what I'm trying to say is, that… I'm sorry, Hermione." I said. Every word I said was true. The only thing she did was let out a small grunt and looked down at her food and continued to eat.

"Hermione." I said, slightly worried now. "What's wrong? I've apologized. I know I was wrong. This isn't my fight yet. Not until Voldemort comes back, if that ever happens."

After a long pause, she looked up from her food with a tear in her eyes. "Harry, i didn't mean to anger you so much. It's just that I thought that you should stay out of this for now. I didn't want to force you into anything, but nobody needs you interfering with this business right now. Sure, Sirius Black might be on the loose, but I'm positive that the Ministry can handle this on their own."  
"Thanks. You had me scared there for a minute." I replied quickly.

She let out a small giggle and said "Anytime, Potter." Then briskly walked out of the Great Hall.

Wonder what's gotten into her. Anyway, McGonagall just gave me my class schedule. Let's see what it looks like. I thought as I picked up the small sheet of parchment and read off of it.

First, Potions  
Second, Defense Against the Dark Arts  
Third, Charms  
Fourth, Transfiguration  
Fifth, Divination

I chose Divination as my elective class for a number of reasons.

One, I was curious to see if foretelling the future is possible,  
Two, the stereotypical crystal balls interested me  
Three, it would make a nice addition to my roster of magic, both of this world and not.

As I looked at the sheet of parchment, I can't help but wonder why wizards insist on using all this old fashioned equipment. There have been suitable replacements made hundreds of years ago by muggles. With magic interfering with technology and electrical currents, we'll have to do without that, but why not take advantage of what we can?

I grunted. We had potions first. I ate the rest of my breakfast and trudged off to the dungeons to "learn" from the abomination the world calls Severus Snape. The class itself was not noteworthy at all for this journal, so I shall proceed to the next class, which happened to be Defense.

As we got into the usual classroom, Hermione seemed to be a few moments late, as if looking for something in a hurry just before coming. Ron and Riley, were, just as last year, seated at the same desk. Hermione slid into her spot next to me just as Lupin walked in. He seemed rather different than on the train last night. Like he hadn't slept the night previous. His lesson was incredibly interesting. As per the usual curriculum, he discussed not only self-defense spells but of creatures from other worlds that had a tendency of appearing randomly on ours. Of these, he talked about the Phyrexian race; a mutant group of creatures of mixed races hellbent on contaminating anything they come into contact with via their infectious oil. The former leader and founder of these savage beasts, a man known as Yawgmoth, died in the last invasion. (A/N: DEAD? YA HEAR ME?) They now wander the multiverse aimlessly, appearing in planes unbeknownst of how they do so, since they have no planeswalker to transport them there. I thought the lesson was rather interesting; especially the practical lesson at the end that was meant to show the professor how far we had advanced in that area.

The next two classes were very, very boring and I would rather not discuss them here, since i'm positive whoever killed me and stole it from my dead body would not rather read.

Divination, however, proved very intresting indeed, although not necessarily in the way most people use the word.

The classroom was located in one of the most remote areas of the castle: it was held inside a small tower somewhere inbetween the Gryffindor Tower and the Astronomy Tower. It was high enough up to require a stepladder and a "trap-door" (A/N: as we Americans call it) in order to reach it. The classroom itself was just as strange as its location. It was a small, pentagonal room with an elevated platform in the back of the room for chairs and tables. Two walls were covered in shelves of teacups, and Trelawny's desk had a large crystal ball on a stand, with barely anything else. Did I mention the incense yet? The professor had various perfumes and scented candles burning that it felt like my nostrils were under attack. The one good thing about this was that I had arrived early enough to obtain a table with Ron and Riley by one of the two large windows on one face of the castle.

I thought I had walked, err… climbed, in with Hermione and met Riley and Ron inside, but now she was nowhere to be seen. Moments after the three of us sat down and arranged our bags under the small, circular table, she appeared. It seemed as if she had come from behind me, where one of the room's corners was, but she quickly shot down this proposition and claimed that she was merely admiring the view. Another thing that I thought was strange; Hermione was terrified of heights.

My mind would wander more on this matter, but the Professor had arrived and forced me to at least try to concentrate on the lesson. She started the lesson by making several strange predictions, one involving a student leaving the class around Easter time, the unavoidable doom of a student in the class, (which, I was convinced was me, considering my somewhat dangerous lifestyle)

After that, the class just went downhill from there. Next, she wanted us to take some coffee grinds and tea leaves, mash them into a pulp, and pour them into one of the teacups. Then, she wanted us to look into the cups and compare some of the images we could see to a chart in our textbook. When I looked inside the cup, I could hardly see anything except for a big black wolf. Consulting the chart in the book, I found that the wolf was, in fact, an omen of doom; one of the worst signs a wizard could receive.

I thought about this for the rest of the day, wondering what all it could possibly mean. In the common room that night, Hermione looked absolutely exhausted, but insisted on staying up to study with the rest of us. Fred came by to ask for assistance for a new product they were designing.

"What are they?" I asked.  
"I call them Puking Pasties. What they'll do is make the eater vomit uncontrollably after he swallows the candy. I want George to eat one after it's finished, but I'll need a few test subjects other than myself.  
"I'm in." I said instantly. Ron agreed very soon afterwards. Riley, however, was on the fence about the matter, but decided to try it out anyway. To say the least, Hermione absolutely refused, not wanting to talk about them any more.

"What's wrong Hermione? Can't take a joke?" Riley asked playfully.  
"No, it's just that I've already got enough work as it is and I don't have time to waste on a stupid prank candy." She replied about as seriously as her sister had asked jokingly.  
"Well, if that's how you feel about it, wait until you see what me and George are planning to do with all this stuff." Fred replied.

I wondered what he could have meant, I thought as he walked off to the boys' dorms. What have the Weasley twins been planning behind everybody's backs? I know it must be very important to them because they haven't told anybody else. They can be very talkative at times and have a tendency to keep few secrets. I pondered this a moment or two longer, then resumed my homework for the night; after which, trudged upstairs and fell asleep after a very hot shower.

-BREAK—

The next morning, before I went down to breakfast, Oliver Wood was waiting for me on one of the many couches that scattered the large room. As soon as he saw me, he stood up and beckoned me over.

"Hey Harry, just to let you know, Quidditch tryouts are this Saturday." He said as he sat back down.  
"Ok, thanks." I said as I walked away. He waited there a moment longer before standing up again and followed me out of the portrait hole.  
"Listen, I've heard that Slytherin's got a new Seeker. We'll need to be careful. There's rumors running around that he's the best we've seen in a while; but I doubt it. You are the best seeker this school has ever seen."  
"Thanks for the warning Oliver, I'll be sure to think about that." I replied. He then turned around and walked back through the portrait. I finished walking down the great set of stairs into the great hall, where I was cast the usual suspicious and afraid looks. I ate breakfast in relative silence, reminded Riley about the Quidditch tryouts, and quickly got up to reach my first class in time.

Thus was the usual routine of my daily activity until that Saturday, during Quidditch practice.


	23. Sirius Fun

Chapter 23:

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in, of, and relating to this story other than the VERY BASIC plotline, and even some, ok, most of that is property of J.K. Rowling.

HEEEYY YOU GUYYYS! I'm back, and with another chapter. Sorry I've been gone all month, I've just been really busy with the same old and haven't give much time at all to this. (Ok, to be brutally honest, I did the writing, editing, and posting within 2 days of first opening the word processor.) Hopefully I pulled this off fine even though I did it so fast.

-START CHAPTER—

That Saturday morning, I awoke early in hopes of getting to Quidditch tryouts early. I knew Riley would be up and at it already, so I wanted to go down and eat. She was really looking forward to today because of that. Of all the things she enjoyed, I have to say that this sport is the thing that she likes the most. Also, it gave me an excuse to spend time with her, along with Fred and George. Riley, unlike her sister, is much like me and Ron, always looking for fun and completely blowing off school assignments most of the time. And when it was finally due, we would ask Hermione to help and we would stay up late to finish. It was mostly because of Riley that this would be made possible. I couldn't think of what would happen if I would do the same thing on my own. Damn, I hate it when I do that. I seem to waste most of my time going off on random tangents inside my head whenever I should be doing something that was actually important.

I got out of bed, trying not to think about anything that would cause me to do that again. After I was changed into my Quidditch robes, I went downstairs into the Great Hall. As normal, or rather, just like last year, I found Riley sitting at the Gryffindor table stuffing her face with a plate of waffles. I walked over to where she was sitting and took a seat across from her.

"Hey Riley, ready for today?" I asked.  
"Yep. Wouldn't miss it for the world." She replied.  
"Great…" I said. And more to myself, I said "What's on the menu today?"

I settled on just a few sausage links and an apple, as I was not quite hungry from the night previous, when of course I stuffed my face in a Ron-like manner. Wait, did I just use my best friends' name as a comparison for something? Wow, I think I'm going crazy. I finished eating quickly and got up just as Riley was almost literally licking the syrup off her empty plate. As we walked out of the Great Hall, I picked up my broomstick from where I had hid it in a nick in one of the statues beside the huge doors that led into the dining hall.

"You know what Riley, I've been thinking…" I started, hoping to start a conversation that would end up helping out one of my best friends. "I think it would be great for you to have a better broom than one of the school brooms."  
"Harry, not this again, huh? I already told you, if I want something, I could pay for it myself or with Hermione's, or even my parents' help if I really needed it." She replied.  
"Oh boy, Riley, can you hear me out for a minute?" I said, to which she nodded. "Ok, listen, I know that you won't take a gift from me to save your life, but don't you think it would help out you, me, the whole team even, if you would allow me to buy a broom for you. If you want, I can get your name engraved on the handle."  
She nodded again and said "Alright, if you insist. Although I would argue that money isn't an object with you, the famous Harry freakin' Potter and all. I'm sure Hermione would kill me to letting you do this, but I guess it would be for the best, and I'm sure it would make you happy."  
"Thanks." I said, and felt a strange feeling creeping up my face, to which my friend laughed and mentioned that we were at the changing room. We walked directly through the small cabin and onto the field. On the sprawling field, there were slightly more students there than last year, some of which I was convinced that were not in Gryffindor at all. We approached Oliver and I mentioned my thoughts to him.

"Thanks Harry, now that you mention it, I don't recognize some of these faces here." And in a louder voice, says "Anyone not sorted into Gryffindor House would be best to leave the field immediately."

There were several groans throughout the crowd and at least a dozen people stalked off to the sidelines. The tryout routine was the same as the previous two years, first, Oliver would have everyone fly around the field once. Those who were unfit to fly were pushed off to the side. Then, he sorted them into positions, and were put up to tasks for each of them. After a while, it seemed that the same team last year would be repeating again this year.

After the tryouts were complete, Oliver called us into the changing room to discuss tactics for the season.

"Alright guys, now that we know for a fact that we have the same team as last year, I'm confident that we will win the house cup. This is my last year at Hogwarts, so I want to make sure of that. We need better tactics than last year, something new, something fresh, something nobody's seen before. I've got a few plans drawn up, but I think that they need some revising. The first game is not until next month, so we have plenty of time to practice and come up with something. Thank you all for coming up here this morning. If you need anything relating to Quidditch or not, you can find me in the common room." He then left, leaving me, Riley, George, Fred, and the other two chasers whose names escape me currently escape me (A/N: I really did forget who else I placed there, and I'm too lazy to go back into the archives saved on my desktop to find out, it's just not worth it.). After a while, we wandered back to the castle, some time during which, Riley explained my request to Hermione, who promptly gave me a proper scolding for God knows what reason.

"Harry, you don't need to squander your fortune on us. I do believe that Riley tried to talk to you out of it. But we really don't need you to be so generous to us."  
"Ok, Hermione, let's look at it from my point of view for a moment. One of my best friends is on the Quidditch team with me and she's riding a stock broom. Not only would it be good for her to have a broom of her own, it would also be great for the team to have one of the chasers on par with the other two."  
Hermione thought about this for a moment before staring at me for a long moment before giving me a swift, but firm hug that nearly knocked me off my feet.  
"Thanks for everything Harry, i-we, really appreciate it." She said before letting go of me and sitting back down and did some more of the extremely large amount of homework she was assigned. I knew it would be best, but being the lazy self that I am, I decided to hold off for a moment.

"Hermione…" I started.  
"Yes Harry?"  
"Well, I was wondering why you look so tired this week. I mean right now, you look like you could pass out. How many classes are you taking?"  
"All of them." She answered. "Did you even fill up all of your periods?"  
"Yep."  
"How exactly?"  
"I have a free period fourth, if that's what you mean."  
"Don't you think that you should do something else with that time? You could start up Care of Magical Creatures. It really is quite interesting, and Hagrid is teaching it, I'm sure he would really appreciate it if you started it."  
"Ok, you do have a point, I'll have to see if my schedule allows for it."  
"What schedule? You just said you had a free period."  
"Yes, but the things I do in that time are quite important to my santiy."  
"Ugh. Boys…" Hermione mumbled to herself before slinking back into the couch we were sitting on and placing her face where it seemed to spend most of it's time lately: inside the pages of a book.

-BREAK—

By the next Friday, Hermione had finally managed to drag me to Care of Magical Creatures. How exactly is a story all it's own.

Me and Fred were in the common room during our free period doing what we usually spent that hour doing, developing his Puking Pasties. They had really improved, but our sessions that week were to see if we could resist the vomiting. What we did is: we each ate one of the candies at the same time, and tried to stop the flow of stomach acid into a bucket in front of each of us. We had absolutely no success at all; which in this case is a good thing. These tests had shown that it was impossible to stop it, and once you ate one, you were doomed to eject the contents of your stomach in front of you.

Well, Hermione had caught us during one of our testing sessions while she was making a supply run up to her dorm, and was absolutely disgusted at the sight of us.

"Alright Harry, you said that you had important things to do during this time… do you really think that vomiting repeatedly for no reason is important?" She asked in a near-rage.  
"Of course, like I said, I've got so much work that this does loads to help me unwind a little."  
"And you don't regret anything about it yet?"  
"Well… I do wish Ron and Riley could be here as well, then it would be insane fun, right Fred?"  
"Right." He agreed. "But, if you want, you can go to the class, I'm fine on my own anyway, just as long as George stays out of here."  
I thought about this for a moment, and answered "Yeah, I guess I can go today." And I a quieter voice barely above a whisper I added "Just to shut her up for now."  
"Ok, that's cool. I can finish these up today, then we can begin enchanting more candies tomorrow. I think that peppermints would be an interesting experiment."  
"Yeah, that sounds fine, I'll get my monster book…" I said as I went upstairs, completely tore my trunk apart looking for the book until finally I found it. I went back down, joined Hermione, and set off to Care of Magical Creatures, having no idea of what I was getting myself into.


	24. That Hippogriff Chapter

A/N: Hey all! I'm back this week with another chapter. Before you start saying how slow this is going (as far as the storyline goes), do consider that the team has absolutely nothing to do before Sirius shows up, so this chapter is doomed to merely be another filler. Sorry to anyone that doesn't like this, but I'll try and make this interesting.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything of or relating to this story, even the vast majority of the storyline is owned by Joanne Rowling, so please don't sue.

START CHAPTER

As me and Hermione walked down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest where Hagrid's hut was located, we found that there was almost nobody there. Only those students that were required to be there for their course were the ones attending. The small crowd that was there seemed to be staring very intently into the treeline, as if waiting for some dark monster to spring out at them. Instead of a horrific monster there was the teacher of the class walking beside a large creature. What exactly it was I could never be sure. It was much larger than a horse, possibly even bigger than the Thestrals that pull the "horseless" carriages to and from Hogsmeade station where the Hogwarts express pulled into the station. It had a large set of silvery wings that were folded up along it's side. It's head was much in resemblance of that of an eagle's. The rest of it's body was covered in the white-silver feathers that adorned it's wings, except for its feet, which were that of a large bird of prey, designed to reach down and catch a fish or rodent, or whatever this strange being might take a liking to eat. Before my mind could wander any farther, Hagrid started speaking.

"Hello again, students, and welcome to yet another class here at Care of Magical Creatures. Today, we will be talking about Hippogriffs. Buckbeak here has volunteered to show himself to the student body." He said in the rumbling deep voice that he had. "Now, in order to approach a Hippogriff safely, you first must bow. Listen 'ere kids, this is very important. Never lose eye contact, if you can help it, try not to blink." He then bowed to the beast without ever breaking eye contact with it. He stood up and continued talking. "Now that we have his trust, we can approach him and pet 'im. After we do that, he'll let you ride him, like this." He said as he walked to the middle of Buckbeak and jumped up on top of him. He happily walked around and took a running start towards the castle and jumped. He flew for a short distance, turned around and glided back to a harmless landing close to where he had started. He got off and asked for volunteers, immediately after which everybody backed up except me, leaving my several steps ahead of the rest of the class.

"Ah, Harry, so nice of you to volunteer." Hagrid said. He walked over to me and stood behind me as he led me to a proper spot to approach Buckbeak. "A'right, what you do is bow to 'im. Don't lose eye contact, or he'll get real mad."

I did what the teacher suggested. And it actually worked. I was surprised at that. Without Hagrid's encouragement, I slowly walked up to the Hippogriff and stroked his beak once. He seemed to like it, so I did it a few more times before he grabbed the collar of my robes and hoisted me onto his back and he took off. Needless to say, it was amazing. Much more appealing than riding on a broom, as crazy as that would sounds coming from me. But it was true, this is insane. He took me farther than I expected. He flew over the treeline and out over the Black Lake. He flew around the perimeter of the lake in what seemed like lazy, but very swift circles. Some times, he would fly up high, and others, he would fly so low that I could touch the water with my hands had I chosen to do so.

I shouted. And I was positive that the whole school could hear. I didn't care, I was having fun, even while in a class. Soon after this, he came back down to the place where he took off and, once landing, trotted back to Hagrid. As he came to a stop, I jumped down from it and I walked back over to the rest of the class.

"So, how was it?" Hermione asked when I approached her.  
"It was amazing, much better than flying on a broom. I didn't guide him, he just flew around wherever he pleased. He seemed a bit excited too, like he hadn't had a chance to fly in a while."

Malfoy, however, thought this stunt, if one would call it that, was easily accomplished and decided to prove it. He walked up to the Hippogriff, bowed to it, and without waiting for it's response, walked up to it and tried to jump on. Much to be expected, Buckbeak bucked him off, causing him to fall onto his right arm.

Of course, he yelled out in pain. Whether this was real or not I couldn't say, but it seemed to be enough for Hagrid, as he called out

"Class dismissed. Mr. Malfoy, that was very poor etiquette to a Hippogriff and such action is very unwise if you treasure your physical well bein'." As he picked him up and started running to the castle.  
"My arm… I think it's broken…" I heard the Slytherin say before he was out of earshot.

I gave Hermione a look, one that said "can we go now?" without saying a word. She seemed to understand it and we started walking simultaneously back to Hogwarts proper, more specifically, the Gryffindor common room.

-BREAK—

As we stepped into the Fat Lady's portrait, I realized that me and Hermione were holding hands, and we let go, blushing like roses.

"So, how was it?" Fred asked. "Let me guess, you're back early because Malfoy got himself in trouble, right?"  
"Wow, yeah, that's right." I replied. "He broke his arm trying to show off, or that's what he said at least."  
"Neat. I'd have to see that one. I've finished off the last of the Puking Pasties. You do know that Hogsmeade weekend is next month, right? I was thinking we could see if Honeydukes has any muggle candy we could buy and enchant. Sounds good?"  
"Yeah," I replied "Great. I think that we could get a catalogue or some mail in forum to get muggle candy from another store there. Or, if we're lucky, he has a huge selection of sweets that aren't enchanted. We could find the best kind there and go with it from there."  
"Yeah, I never thought about getting muggle candy from there the last two years, then again, I never really needed it then. We'll just have to wait and see." I said. It was at that moment that I noticed Hermione had ran off again. Why does she keep disappearing like that? It doesn't seem right. Since we started school back up again, she's been acting strange, like she's hiding something. What, I can't possibly imagine. I decided to wait here until it was time for the next class, which I managed to get with not only Hermione, but also Ron and Riley. It seems strange, we were supposed to have largely similar schedueles, but after it all panned out, we only had three of our six classes together, much less than I anticipated, but whatever. It's not like it's the end of the world, still get to see my friends after classes and on the weekends. Take Fred and George for instance, they're two of my closest friends, we share no classes, and yet we consistently get together and hang out.

OK, my mind's wandered far enough for today. I think it'd be best if I just start heading to the classroom now and wait ten minutes for everyone else to file in.

-END CHAPTER—

Ok, sorry for this week's update being so short, but I felt that there was little need to continue filling up the word count with information that would be both boring to read and absolutely useless to the storyline. Why I didn't put Hogsmeade in this chapter is important other than the fact that I wanted it to be it's own thing. What exactly I'm planning with the peaceful wizarding village has been determined by me personally, but the extreme details have yet to be worked out. Thank you all for reading very much, I hope you have a good week, and I'll see, err… you'll see me, next week.


	25. Sirius Fun, part 2

Hello all again, I welcome you to yet another installment of this story. I've got great things in store for you today, but what, you'll have to read on and see.

Yes, I know I promised hogsmeade would have its very own chapter, but I thought of something that would have become a plothole if left unchecked, I hope you all can forgive me.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything of or pertaining to this story. The only thing I own of this are the character of Riley Granger and the storyline of this that you all do not recognize and is different from the one J.K. Rowling wrote for us all.

Without further ado, on with the show.

-START CHAPTER—

The day of Hogsmeade weekend was drawing near, all the while Fred and I were busy tinkering with the recipe and spellwork of the Puking Pasties. We felt confident that we almost had it, but we were running low on muggle candy with which to enchant with the barfing spell. We hoped to pick up a catalogue from the owner of Honeydukes and buy some more once we were out. After we had the spell down perfect, then we were ready to start selling them, or at least that's what Fred wanted to do with them. I was fine with merely making them for the fun of it, but Fred seemed to have another agenda on his mind, one that he wanted to keep secret from me even though I was the main conspirator in this quest. Ron and Riley helped marginally whenever they felt like it, but it was mostly on a whim, few and far between. It was at this moment I found myself in, walking to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom on a Thursday afternoon. I realized that Fred and George not only loved pranks, practical jokes, gags, and all other adjectives of the word you can think of, but they might want to make a career out of it. What if the Puking Pasties were only the first step on what could be a road of untapped potential and enterprise? After those were finished, where else could they go? The possibilities seemed limitless, as infinite as the Multiverse and as complex as the human mind. If there was one thing I learned in my extraterrestrial studies, it's that there is nothing more complex, more complicated than the human mind. I saw that I had approached the classroom and promptly put such ramblings into the back of my mind, into a safe under lock and key, where I could find them and bring them out later. The classroom was filling up, but not with chairs and desks, but with standing students. As I walked in, I noticed that the chairs and desks were drawn to the side and were stacked up against the wall. The plain hall was as usual, undecorated with pictures, and only had a few windows, which gave it a gloomy feel, but it was this lighting that I really enjoyed. There was a large wardrobe close to the back of the room, which seemed to be the focus of the literal student body, which was crowing up against itself, writhing for a better view by each of its many dozen eyes. I easily found Hermione, Ron, and Riley, who were staying away from the crowd, not at all eager to join in the battle for a decent spot.

"Hey guys, what's with the wardrobe?" I asked.  
"I think it has something to do with the lesson." Hermione said.  
"Really?" Riley asked sarcastically, to which her twin looked not at all pleased.  
"Yes Riley, really." She replied. The other three of us snickered some, but were cut severely short as Professor Lupin walked in.

**FLASHBACK**

"Harry, you wouldn't believe the kind of stuff Lupin would do to Snape while they were in school!" George said excitedly as I walked up to the edge of the Black Lake, under the willow tree that me and the six were so fond of meeting.  
"How would you know that? Have you been sneaking peeks into his Pensieve?" I asked, joking around, they knew this too, we were almost never serious about anything when it was free time.  
"Never Harry. He told us himself." Fred said.  
"He's been asking us to stay a few minutes after class this last lesson. He said he wanted to tell us a few of the things he did." George continued.  
"He also said he wanted us to tell you that he wants to keep you after class to talk about things, what, he didn't say." Fred finished.  
"Ok, I can do that, but why didn't he want to just tell me in front of the rest of the class?"  
"That, he wouldn't say, but I have a feeling it might be something personal if he wants it hushed up." Fred said again.  
"Yeah, you must be right. I'll stay after class on Thursday. Thanks." I said before we slipped off to other subjects.

**END FLASHBACK**

That was two days ago, on Tuesday. Today, I'm sure Lupin has something in store for me after class, but for now, I should focus on the class at hand. He had us all line up in a straight line in front of the wardrobe. Neville was in front. The defense professor had him take a few steps forward and they had a short conversation before he announced to the class

"Alright class, today we are going to face a boggart. Can anyone tell me what a boggart is?" He said, and Hermione promptly raised her hand. "Yes Miss Granger?"  
"A boggart is a shapeshifter that takes the form of whatever the looker is most afraid of." She said confidently.  
"Excellent, take ten points for Gryffindor." Now, can anyone tell me why this boggart is hiding inside a wardrobe?" Lupin said, and waiting a minute staring at Hermione's right hand before saying "other than Miss Granger?" After a moment of nothing, he let Hermione give the correct answer.

"Yes, and how to get rid of them can prove quite amusing. Neville, walk up closer to the thing and repeat what we discussed, can you do that for me?" He said. Neville nodded his head and took five short steps towards the closet. As soon as he did this, Professor Snape walked out of it.

Neville looked terrified at this apparition, but in any circumstances, still uttered the boggart repelling charm of "Ridikkulus!" As he said this, what appeared to be Severus Snape turned into Severus Snape wearing the most ridiculous (no pun indented, ok, maybe…) looking outfit. He was wearing an ugly green dress with a matching hat that held what looked like a taxidermists' model of a vulture nesting on top of it. As this change occurred, the whole class laughed while the beast shrunk back into the wardrobe until the next in line stepped forward. This process repeated until it was my turn, seeing as I was dead last, I didn't mind. I was having fun watching the rest of the class make fun of their worst fears. In short, I enjoyed this class greatly, but not as much momentarily within the next few minutes. I walked up to the wardrobe, and unlike Voldemort or another Sith Lord, a dementor glided out of the doors. It hovered around me for a few moments before I even had the wits to pull out my wand. I lifted my arm up some way before Lupin stepped in and the dementor focused on him, promptly turning into an exact replica of the full moon. He shouted the incantation, and it turned into a quickly deflating yellow balloon.

"Class dismissed, I hope you all had a good time." Lupin shouted. And in a much smaller voice said "Harry, if you don't mind, I'd like to have a word with you."  
"Yeah. Sure" I said, still shaken up a bit by the whole episode. After everyone left, Lupin started an attempt at conversation.

"So Harry, Fred and George have told me a lot about your shenanigans prowling about the castle."  
"They did, did they?" I replied, not exactly sure what he was getting at.  
"Oh yes, and lots. Don't worry, I won't get you in trouble for any of it. I was the exact same way when I was your age. Me and your dad used to do all sorts of things like that." He said.  
"Wait! You knew my dad?" I asked, stunned at even the prospect that I could talk to a living relation of my parents that gave a damn about them.  
"Oh yes. He was my best friend. Sadly though, along with Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black." He said, seeming somewhat ashamed he used to have Black as a friend.  
"Sirius was their FRIEND? And he betrayed them? How could he?" I asked in a desperate rage that conjured itself into my mind as fast as it could.  
"It's that same question that I've been asking myself all these years…"  
"Why would he have escaped? He wants something, which is why he's not been caught yet. Maybe he just wanted some freedom, I don't know. I'm no expert…" I said, wandering off before I caught myself on another rant.  
"I'm not entirely sure either, but that's not the reason I called you in here. What I wanted you for is this: I know you passed out from the Dementor attack coming into the station in September, and I know a spell that I could teach you that would ward these off."  
"Yeah, that would be nice." I said, smiling.

-BREAK—

Two days later, I awoke ready for the day of the first Hogsmeade visit of the year. I got out of bed in a start, realizing this day had already come. When I first heard the description of it from Hermione, I thought it was too good to be true, but the more I thought about it, the more real it seemed. Hogsmeade is the only pure wizarding village in the whole country, so of course Hermione was eager to go. Me, Ron, and Riley however, were interested in the plethora of shops that were available to us during our stay. In either case, I made my way down to the Great Hall where the rest of our group was. Hermione was holding a newspaper reading some unknown article, Fred, George, and Riley were doing the usual goof off thing and Ron was too busy stuffing his face with waffles to say anything.

"Hey guys, all set for today?" I asked as I took a seat next to Ron, who merely nodded his head lest he should stop eating for five seconds.  
"Yep. Sure am. I'm looking to fill up on candy from Honeydukes, you know how mum and dad don't like us eating too much of the stuff." Riley said with a devilish grin spreading up on her face.  
"Agreed." Fred said as he gave a very slight nod my way. I returned it just as subtly and piled my plate with as much waffles and maple syrup as it could stand. The rest of the meal was quiet except for the usual nonsense banter that was to be expected from us.

The ride was, unfortunately, accompanied by dementors, who had a nasty habit of flying too close to the carriages. Once at the town however, the student body went ballistic, spreading out among the cityscape like a pack of hunting dogs let loose on a boar. We slowly climbed out of our cart, not eager to mingle with the insanity that was mob mentality and hung back a few moments, waiting for everyone else to exit their rides and mix themselves with the normal occupation.

Our first stop was Honeydukes. Fred and I had come up with a master plan to buy the muggle candy so that George was left unawares. We would buy what we normally would have, let everyone in our party leave, telling them we would catch up, and then ask the clerk about our errand.

"Muggle candy you say? What would you boys fancy to do with that?" Said clerk asked when questioned about it.  
"Lets just say that we need it for some… special purposes." I said, weaving what the others took to calling Jedi Magic into my words. As she heard this, she disappeared into the back of the store and came out with, several moments later, a large cardboard box that had all sorts of various miscelanious muggle candies in it. Several, if not all of which looked perfectly fine to be tested on.

"I'll take the whole thing." I said. She then gladly rung the prices on it and I paid for it with a sack of "loose change" that I brought with me. Fred thanked me lots and I stuffed all of the sweets into the bag that I brought along. Outside, I discarded the box in a trash can and ran to Zonko's to catch up with the rest of our group.

Zonko's was rather uneventfull other than us buying as much as we cared of various pranks, practical jokes, and gags. Well, all except for Hermione of course, who didn't care to divulge into these things.

Our stay at the Three Broomsticks, however, is worthy of being retold in this account and so it shall.

Once we left Zonko's we headed down to the pub and got a large booth about halfway down the right side of the building. We ordered Butterbeers, snack cakes, and all other sorts of refreshments. To say the least, Madame Rosmerta, the bartender of the pub, had a busy time while we were there. We absolutely nothing there other than talk of things important, and of those not so much. But we had a fun time.

We lost complete track of time until Dumbledore, Professor McGonnogal, and Hagrid showed up and asked Rosmerta for a private room. I excused myself, saying I needed the restroom. I didn't really, as was obvious, but I did head there, if it was only to put on my invisibility cloak. In any way, I followed the three professors into their room, where Dumbledore left the door slightly ajar for several minutes before shutting it, as if expecting me to follow.

"I suppose we should say the worst to begin with, shouldn't we?" McGonnogal asked.  
"I'm afraid so, Minerva." Dumbledore said in reply.  
"Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban and is on his way here, no doubt to finish what he started with Lily and James all those years ago."  
"T'is a cryin' shame that he betrayed them the way he did. He was their best friend." Hagrid sobbed. "I still miss them…"  
"Yes, Hagrid, we all do, but that can't be helped. What we can do, however, is ensure the survival of the remaining Potter."  
"Do you really think Black will come after him?" McGonnogal asked.  
"Yes, sadly." Dumbledore said.

"Why would he come after Harry? He got his reward no doubt. Does he want to finish the job?" Hagrid asked, still crying.  
"No." Dumbledore said. "Sirius Black is, unfortunately, Harry Potter's godfather."

This was a shock to me and to Hagrid as well. I knew they were close, but I had no idea I could be really related to him other than a long dead friendship.

Having learned what I wanted, I silently crept out of the room and back to our booth.

"Alright I'm back." I said nonsuspiciously. Nobody really seemed to notice my disappearance, which I was thankful for.

Black is coming to Hogwarts, he wants to finish the job that he started, does he? Well, we'll show him how much pain he's put me in all these years.

I'll show him.


	26. Smashing good Quidditch

A/N: Alright guys, I've been staying up late to do this, so let's keep this nice and simple and let me just leave you with a burning question: WHAT THE HELL IS A HUFFLEPUFF?

**START CHAPTER**

Needless to say, I took much time, losing many hours of sleep trying to locate Sirius Black on the Marauder's Map. Although the Quidditch Match against Hufflepuff was drawing near, and I knew that I was nowhere as well-practiced as I should be. I suppose I only have myself to blame, though. After all, if I didn't sneak into Dumbledore's talk, then I wouldn't have known the truth about Sirius Black. That is easily justified, because an insane murderer that is most likely to make his way straight to me is far, far more important than being ready for a game of Quidditch.

I knew that the game was only a few days away, and that I was caught up with all of my homework so far, so I might have a few extra minutes to practice. Funny to think that I go from someone trying to kill me to practicing more so fast, but that's the way that my brain has been working the past few months.

It was the middle of the day, to be more precise, I was walking back to the common room after a day's work of school. The walk back was uneventful, but when I got in, I met Fred sitting at one of the tables in the far corner of the room. When I went to him, he had a considerable amount of the candy we got at Honeydukes, trying to enchant them with the Puking Pasty spell he invented.

"Hey, almost got it?" I asked as I took off my pack and slung it down onto the ground and took a seat.  
"Yeah, I just need to get this batch done and we can get George with one." He said as he cast the spell on another one.  
"Great. You need any help?" I asked.  
"Nah, I already got all but just a few left."  
"Alright, when would you want to give it to him? Tomorrow at breakfast you think?"  
"Yeah, then we could let him in on the job. We could make some serious cash doing this." He said.  
"You think these could get you a profit? I'm not sure about that, but try if you want."  
"Don't worry, I've got it all under control."

**BREAK**

The next morning, I awoke early, mainly because of the fact that the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. I looked at the window, and it was pouring down rain. Great, this'll be fun. I changed out of my pajamas and went downstairs for an early breakfast. The Great Hall was suprsingly full for this time of day, it must be the game that has everyone excited. I looked to the right side and noticed that there were very few Slytherins actually awake. Figures, but I guess it's all as well. I went over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Fred, who slid me the caramel we had enchanted to give to George. I ate a considerable amount of food before casually offering him the candy. He took it gladly and ate it. Instantly, he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the table. As expected, it was extremely disgusting and may or may not have ruined Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet, but it was worth it. He seemed fine soon after, with nearly the whole table had smiles on their faces. Very soon after, Fred had explained to him how exactly he did it, and was on board for the project as soon as he asked if he wanted to.

Unfortunately, there was not much time for goofing off and we had to finish eating in time to get ready for the game in the weather. Before I went in, Hermione just happened to remember a spell that would keep my glasses from getting water on them.

"Thanks Hermione, you're the best." I said.  
"No problem, now go catch that Snitch for me." She said before walking away towards the stands.

I got suited up in my Quidditch robes extremely happily. Before the game started, Oliver wanted to give a quick speech.

"Alright guys, some of you might know that this year is my last at Hogwarts, and so I want to make sure that we win the Cup this year. We need every single one of you to play as hard as you can. Harry, I need you to catch the snitch and finish the game quickly. The Hufflepuff Seeker is a sixth year named Cedric Diggory, he's got quite a track record on him since he started playing, so keep an eye out. Now, let's play some Quidditch."

There was a small applause as much as six teenagers could give, but he seemed pleased with it and turned around waiting for the announcer to call the names of the players. Eventually, it did happen and the game got started very soon afterwards. As Oliver said, the Hufflepuff seeker was very adept at what he was meant to do, dodging in and out of other players, bludgers, and seeing through the rain. The game was very uneventful other than the chasers trading points. That was, until the Dementors showed up. At first, there were three and made their way straight for me. Doing the only logical thing I could think of, I ran away. No matter how fast I went or in which direction, they kept up, as if holding a grudge against me. Then, there were hundreds, they all swarmed the pitch and one got to me before I fell off my broom. I was knocked unconscious and knew no more.

**BREAK**

When I came to, I was staring up at the Quidditch team plus Ron and Hermione. I looked around, stunned while I took my bearings.

"What happened?" I asked.  
"Dementors attacked the Quidditch Pitch. You were knocked off your broom." Hermione replied. She looked… relieved, you could say.  
"No, not that, I mean in the game."  
"Diggory caught the snitch. We lost by eighty points." George replied.  
"Great. Just what we needed… What happened to my broom?"  
"Harry, I'm sorry, the Whomping Willow got to it after you fell and, well…" Ron said, handing me a leather bag. On the inside, there was many shreds and splinters of wood and what looked like straw.

"Great…" I said and put my head back down on my pillow. "I don't think I'm having a good day. Can you guys get Madame Pomfrey to see if I can leave?"

One of the usual crowd went, I couldn't tell which because I had shut my eyes, but when he came back I was given the go ahead by Hermione to leave. Being both glad and upset over the loss of my broom, I walked up the great stairs to the Gryffindor common room. I had used that broom to many a Quidditch match and general paraphernalia.

Not much happened the rest of the day, or the week for that matter, but when the cry of:

"SIRIUS BLACK HAS BEEN SPOTTED ON THE THIRD FLOOR!" Rang in my ears, I knew that my life would be spiced up a bit, if even for short term.

Sorry this one was so short, but I felt it was necessary because of length and just plain convenience, well, on my part. I've been trying to keep it at about 2,000 words per chapter, but with the last one being 2700 I felt this is justified a bit, but I hope you all enjoyed!


	27. Sirius Fun, part 3

A/N: I'm baack! And with a name change. My usual internet name was taken so I stuck some random combination of numbers behind it and I thought my new one would be better, but really it's something I came up with while I was really bored. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write this week, so I'll do as much as I can and find a good stopping point when I really can't do any more. Hopefully, it doesn't sounds to artificial and clunky, but anyways, on with the story!

And I ran. I thought I could never run this fast, but alas, I did. I was so caught up in chasing Black at the moment that I hardly noticed all my friends shout at me as I ran out of the common room and straight to the ledge of the Great Stairs and jumped off. Sirius was on the third floor, four below me. I let myself fall until I found the third and grabbed onto the ledge and swung myself up and landed on my feet. I heard my small group of friends shout for me and started running down the stairs, but I completely ignored them, completely focused on my task.

Now, only to find him. I began by searching the hallways and into any doors that did not lead anywhere but the room that contained them. After a while, when I was considering to move up or down, Peeves the ghost creeped up behind me. He tried to shriek at me, which to be brutally honest shocked me a bit but I was otherwise unaffected.

"HA! Tricked you!" The ghost rang out for all to hear.  
"Wait, you what?" I asked, becoming increasingly angry at the poltergeist by the second.  
"There's no Sirius here! I tricked you into looking! And what a show you put on. I'd give it a seven."  
By this time, both sets of twins plus Ron were either at my side or crowded around me, but I didn't care now.

That was it. I took out my lightsaber and slashed at him, but to no avail. The blade simply passed right through him with no effect.

NO, this isn't me. I'm losing myself. I need time to think. So I went to the only place I knew of that I could rest in peace: the willow tree on the shores of the Black Lake. Nobody would bother me there, or so I thought.

After I sat a while, steaming off my anger, Hermione came and sat down next to me.

"Harry… Uh, we need to talk." She said.  
"I know, I know. It was a misunderstanding, it won't happen again."  
"No, it wasn't that, it's your attitude towards all of this. You need to calm down. This isn't your fight. Let the ministry take care of this, they can lock him up where he belongs."  
"Yeah, I know, but it wasn't that. I was just too caught up to care about anything else. I thought I finally had my hands on him. I just don't know what to do." I said. I knew tears were forming in my eyes and I'm sure Hermione saw it.  
"Harry, come on, let's go back to the common room. It's almost supper time." She started to stand up, but not before I wrapped her in a huge hug. I knew that she was shocked for a moment, but returned the embrace a moment before we stood up.

"Thanks Hermione." I said. "For everything."

-BREAK—

Supper was fine, rather uneventful, but it was the next morning at breakfast when things started to really look up.

I got out of bed in the normal fashion and made my way down to the Great Hall where, surprisingly, only Ron was awake.

"Hey Ron, what's up?" I asked casually, but he never got a chance to answer. Just then, the mail showed up and hundreds of owls swooped in and dropped mail onto the laps on their recipients. Because it was a Saturday, now very many students were up and out of bed, so a great many of the owls flew out of the Great Hall and up the staircase, where they would arrive at the respective common rooms of those houses the students belong to and enter merely because the paintings do not want a hole ripped through the middle of them. Four owls, however, came diving down right where me and Ron were sitting and deposited a long thin parcel right on top of my eggs and sausage that I called breakfast this morning. The shape of the packaged led me to believe that it was a broomstick, but that's crazy, right? After all, who outside of Hogwarts knew about my Nimbus breaking, and who inside it would fork up the money to get me one? I thought the idea was insane until me and Ron opened it up. Lo and behold, it was a broom.

"That's not just any broom, that's a Firebolt." Ron said excitedly.  
"Great. Can't wait to try it out. I wonder who it's from, there's no letter on it or anything." I said, wondering about the prospect. I wrapped up the package feeling very happy with myself and finished eating what was left of my plate plus a strip of bacon (A/N: Because who doesn't love bacon? Even vegetarians eat the soy stuff!). We hurried outside as fast as we could without drawing attention to ourselves, making straight for the Quidditch pitch. Once we opened it up and took it for a test flight, we soon realized that the hype on it was not overstated. It was much faster than my old Nimbus and could maneuver sharp turns almost twice as better as the other. Even Ron, who swears up and down that he can't fly a broom with any decency to save his life, did rather well on it. He gave it his consent gladly and we went upstairs back into the common room to wait for the rest of the Quidditch team to awaken.

-BREAK—

Once everyone else had eaten breakfast and was in the common room with me, which was luckily deserted possibly because everyone else wanted some fresh air.

"Alright Harry, what's so special that you've got to show us all in here?" Riley asked, obviously impatient and so far had other plans for today.  
"Ron, the broom if you'd please?" I said as formally and as mockingly as I could, heavily emphasizing the accent the residence of Hogwarts is fond of. There was a short, but quiet laugh from George, but other than that, the team was all serious, but not for long.

Ron gave me the broom still in its packaging, which I wordlessly opened to reveal the shiny new broom. Needless to say, the room went quiet fast, plastered on the faces of the others present was a look of sheer surprise. Hermione was much less so, but mainly looked concerned as if wondering if there was potential danger to it.

Sure enough, there was. "Harry, where did you get that?" She asked.  
"I don't know, it came in the mail for me while me and Ron were eating." I replied honestly.  
"Don't you think that you should give it to McGonnogal to make sure it isn't jinked?"

There was a small gasp from Oliver, who decided to intercede on my part.

"Hermione, do you know how much of a waste that would be? We have the fastest broom in the world in the hands of our seeker, do you think that anyone would try to hurt him now?" He argued.  
"Well, for all we know, it could be from Sirius Black." She said simply.

I thought for a moment, weighing my options, before replying

"Alright Hermione, if it means that much to you, we can get it inspected." As I said this, a great many things happened: Riley gave a small giggle at the two of us, Hermione herself blushed a scarlet red, Oliver got a shocked expression on his face, and the twins looked at each other before walking up to the two of us and snatching the broom and running around with it about the room, saying things that would be both impossible to recount in this tale and would be both extremely embarrassing for me and Hermione.

In other words, basically the same things that Riley has been teasing us about on and off for the past four years.

In the end, Hermione took the broom with Fred and went to McGonogall's office to see about getting it checked for any potential curses. After the meeting, the gang slowly scattered, leaving to go to various other places. After that had happened, the only people left in the common room were myself, Riley, and Ron.

"So, where do you think that broom came from?" Riley asked.  
"No idea." I said. "But I have a feeling that whoever sent it either really likes me or doesn't want Slytherin to keep winning the Quidditch Cup."

Technically, this was true. The house of snakes had won the Quidditch championship for the past two years, and according to Oliver, had won since he was at school also. But alas, these strange happenings had left even me to merely wonder at what it all meant. Nothing of importance happened until that afternoon, when me and Professor Lupin were going to practice the Patronus charm.

-BREAK—

I soon found myself in Lupin's office, surrounded by strange things, such as silver amulets randomly laying around to books on Care of Magical Creatures. This I questioned him on, to which he replied that it was another subject that he was quite interested in.

"Alright now, down to business, in this chest I have another boggart. As we can safely assume, when the beast springs out and attacks you, it will take the shape of a dementor. Now, what we do to it is cast the charm "Expecto Patronum."

To get it to perform at its maximum potential, we must summon a happy thought to our minds." Just as he predicted, when the boggart emerged from the treasure chest looking box, it took the form of the black cloaked flying figure. I thought of something that brought a smile to my heart and tried the incantation. It brought about a dim white flash from my wand before I collapsed in a heap on the ground.

When I came to, the Defense Professor handed me a small piece of chocolate, which he again explained worked as dementor defense. Once I was ready, I stood up and thought of something else, which my wand replied in a gleaming yellow light enveloping the boggart and pushed it back into the case from which it came.

"Well done, Harry! That was excellent, what exactly did you think of?" Lupin said in surprise and joy.

I didn't answer immediately, but I thought of the first time Hermione Granger entered my life.

-END CHAPTER—

Once again, thanks for bearing with the name change, my old one just seemed stupid and this one at least has some semblance of being relatively cool. Hopefully it doesn't cause any trouble to any of my loyal fans.

Speaking of loyal fans, it's been a while since my iPod beeped with a review email, I know that I'm sending out at least 13 emails per chapter and I'd like some feedback to see where I should take the story. Because quite frankly, I've got a few ideas, but none of them are that great. Thank you all very much for reading, and uhh… send me a review!


	28. Sirius Fun, Part 4

I think it's been a while since I've posted a disclaimer, so:

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of or pertaining to this story other than Riley Granger, and any semblance of a storyline that you might recognize that was written by the wonderful, wonderful author J.K. Rowling.

As normal, I'll keep this short and sweet and quote the famous writer Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame:

"You keep reading, and I'll keep writing."

The next morning, during breakfast, Hermione got a letter that said that Hagrid wanted to see the two of us after breakfast, so after we ate, we walked out of the castle and down to Hagrid's small hut. Once there, he let us in eagerly, although I felt that he was a bit on edge about something.

"'ello kids, sorry to bother ya, but I got this from an owl this mornin' and I wanted 'ermione to look at it." He said in his usual gruff voice. Out from his trench coat pocket he pulled a small sheet of parchment and handed it to the two of us.

On it, it read:

"To Rubeus Hagrid, Gameskeeper of Hogwarts

You are cordially summoned to a court of law because of the actions of the Hippogriff Buckbeak towards the heir to the Malfoy Estate, Draco. Please note that this beast has broken several laws that govern it's kind and has no way of defending itself.

Sincerely, Secretary to Minister of Magic for Great Britan Cornelius Fudge,

Dolores Jane Umbridge."

It was short and simple and got to the point. Hagrid had fretted much about this simple letter, and it was readily obvious why. If the trial against Buckbeak went wrong, he could easily lose his life. I risked a sideways glance at Hermione, who was studying the paper intently. After several long moments, she looked up and said

"I'll see what I can do," Simply. At this one small statement, Hagrid went from looking sad and dismayed to happy and overjoyed. Somehow, I had a sickening feeling that it would not end well, but Hermione seemed determined to get Buckbeak a fair trial.

Due to this, she seemed even more exhausted than normal for this year. I really hope that she doesn't overwork herself. She always wants to help out whoever might need it, and unfortunately, I'm speaking from experience. Not once has she turned me, Ron, or her sister away for personal reasons, which leads me to believe that she will literally wear herself out on this task if someone doesn't rein her in.

We walked back to the castle to start our classes for the day, Hermione was happy that we had the same classes, so she went to work immediately formulating Buckbeak's defense.

Nothing eventful happened inside classes except for at Divination, something that left me wondering what would happen to me in the months immediately after Christmas break, which was surprisingly soon.

-BREAK-

As we opened the trap door to the Divination classroom, we were met by the usual bombardment of scents and perfumes that would make the average American hippie jealous. But nonetheless, we climbed up the rope ladder that was in place and took our usual seats. Trelawney was, as usual, staring glassy eyed into a crystal ball for an uncountable amount of time before finally starting the class. She looked as if she were going to make a prediction of some sort, but her mind thought better of it and she started the class as normal.

Today, we were going to be peering into our own crystal balls, which were neatly arranged on the table for each of us to use. At the notion of this, Riley looked a bit dismayed and Hermione was absolutely horrified. It seemed for a moment that she would refuse to do so, but tried anyway. As for me, I had my usual go at anything of or pertaining to Divination, but like normal, my failure left a deafening hum in my ears.

After helping several other tables, the instructor came over to us and first checked on Ron's progress.

"Ah dear, it is vitally necessary that you place your hands on the ball, in order to gain it's full knowledge." She said before moving onto Riley.  
"Excellent, what do you see?"

"I see clouds, lots of them…" Riley trailed off. "There's not much else here, though."  
"Very good, eventually, something will come." The teacher replied before moving to the next seat at our circular table, which happened to be mine.

"Hmmmm…. I sense great things from you in this subject young man. Does anything catch your inner eye inside of your ball?"  
"No, it's just glass." I replied,

"Exactly! It's just glass." Hermione blurted out. "I don't see how you can see anything inside of one of these things. It breaks almost every rule in known magical theory and law. How anyone gets anything out of this, those teacups and ground barley or sage or whatever the hell you put in there. I've just about had it with you!"

And with that, she knocked her own instrument off of its pedestal and it followed her out of the trap door. How it didn't break from that fall was beyond me, but Hermione's actions just now showed a very different side of her character that I had never seen before. I guess even someone like her can only go so far before they break. The things is though, I never thought it would happen so soon. Hopefully she doesn't do that for some other classes.

Fast forward about half an hour, me Riley and Ron are walking down the staircase that leads to the classroom when I spotted Hermione's crystal ball. I picked it up and proceeded to bring it back to Trelawney. No doubt she'd want it back at some point. When I re-entered the classroom, she was sitting at her desk in a very similar fashion to when I walked in at the start of the lesson. I wordlessly placed the crystal ball on her desk and walked away. But before I could do that, her hand shot out to grab my wrist, when I looked back at her, her eyes went solid white and she seemed to glow a strange radiant color.

And in an otherworldly, raspy voice, she said:

"_As the fourth month is born and as the day dies, the servant will rejoin his master. The dark slave and the dark overlord will once again rise. The dark lord will again sit on his dark throne to the peril of all."_

And just as soon as it started, it stopped. The professor was extremely confused and demanded to know what was going on. I reassured her, albeit falsely, that nothing was the matter and I was merely returning lost equipment.

I walked back to where I was headed: the Gryffindor Common Room. Divination was the last class I had every day and I was eager to get some rest. What would "the servant will rejoin his master" mean? The dark lord was obviously Voldemort, but who exactly his servant could be, the options are almost limitless. It could be Snape, but then again, it could be a Brazilian half-blood out to prove himself to his peers… I think I'll just have to wait until April to find out what it all means.

As I sat down, everyone looked up at me, wondering where I was. I gave the generic reply of returning the crystal ball to Trelawney, which was partially true.

Hermione still hadn't shown up yet, which left the five of us to goof off as we saw fit. Fred and George had mass produced the Puking Pasties in all sorts of shapes and sizes and wanted to start selling them. But to do that, they would need some help publicizing them and making packaging's for them. Riley decided that she would design the boxes, I would spread the word in relative secret, and that Ron would help the Weasley twins in the actual packing of the candies. Hermione was not present to take part in this project, but everyone was in agreement that she would refuse when asked about it.

-BREAK-

October turned into November. November turned into December. Christmas break happened. I was ever on the lookout for Sirius Black. Hermione was just as diligent in the search for a decent appeal for Buckbeak's life. It was on the eve of the trial that Hermione wanted the rest of us to go down to Hagrid's hut with her. Of course, we had little to nothing to do with her countless hours of research and studies into it, but she wanted all of us to give it to him. Once there, he let the six of us in cheerfully. From Hermione's robes, she produced a large scroll and placed it on his table. Hagrid was overjoyed as he looked over the scroll that she wrote up for him.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't myself go, but for all of my school assignments. I hope this helps you." She said simply. The teacher of Care of Magical Creatures could not say a thing, but he merely nodded his head and it appeared that his eyes were starting to cheer up. We visited for a long time after he gathered his wits about him. The talk was nice, albeit a bit forced and stale. There was not much else discussed other than the trial, but Hermione was very upset when we had to head back to the castle for supper and curfew. If it weren't for that, she would have stayed for several more hours.

January turned into February. February turned into March. March brought along a strange turn of events at its end and at the beginning of April that would no doubt change the course of wizarding history.

To begin to recount this tale, I must start at the beginning. To be more precise, the date was March 19th, at approximately 11:30 PM. I had just taken my shower for the day and was just getting into bed when the door to the dorm opened silently. I thought it was just someone passing that had knocked on the doorknob accidentally, so I went to close it. Soon after I did, Ron gave a yelp that awoke everyone in the Gryffindor House. Even Scabbers had given a squeal of supprise. I turned around to see someone standing over Ron's bed with Scabbers in his hand. I used the force to summon my lightsaber and I activated it. The eerie blue light emitted by the blade showed me a tall, dirty looking figure that I knew from somewhere. But before I could look for too long, he vanished. I knew of something that could help me find whatever it was. The Marauder's Map. I made a run for my bedside table and opened the drawer to reveal the piece of yellow parchment I was looking for. I activated it and saw the figure running down the Great Staircase at top speed: Sirius Black. I knew what I had to do. Regardless of my current apparel, I ran, with my lightsaber and wand in one hand and the map in the other. I was sure I could catch him this time. I didn't want to risk jumping down the middle of the castle for fear of missing the floor he was on, so I did the next best thing. I ran down the stairs after him. We reached the bottom of the stairs and he was opening the extremely large doors that led into the castle when Professor Dumbledore stepped in front of me.

"Professor. What's going on? Sirius Black is escaping! I've got to get to him!" I said exhausted at running down the ten flights of stairs with no preparation.  
"I can assure you that Sirius is innocent, Harry. However hard that might be to believe." The wizened professor said.  
"Yeah, that's… that's kinda hard for me to believe right now."  
"No worry. I have proof." He said as he lifted his wand, muttered a small spell, and a eerie yellow light shot out of it and raced through the wood and stone doors. Several impossibly long and agonizing moments later, they opened to reveal the man I was chasing. Before he could take two steps in, I pounced on him instinctively.

"Tell me that you're innocent. Now, before I deny you that chance." I said, lightsaber drawn and activated, held to his throat.  
"I swear Harry, it wasn't me." He said. The expression on his face seemed a bit off, but I could never be too sure.  
"Say it again." I demanded, which he did. His facial expression was completely honest and I stumbled backwards onto the ground.

"It's true… then how…" I mused to myself.  
"Long story harry. It's so good to see you again. You look just like your father, but with your mothers eyes." After a long pause of either of us saying nothing, he said "To squash any doubt that you may have about me,

I, Sirius Orion Black, hereby swear on my life and magic that I was in no way involved in the murders of Lily and James Potter." A bright white light covered his form for a few moments and then disappeared.

"See? Need any more proof?" I shook my head. But before he could say anything, Professor Lupin came crashing in to the scene.

"Sirius. It really is you." Remus said.  
"Yes, it's me. I'm back." Sirius replied. He seemed… at peace, like he was visiting old friends.

"Why did you do it Sirius?" The defense Professor asked. "Why did you sell them out to Voldemort?"  
"I just explained this Remus, it wasn't me."  
"I don't believe you!" He shouted in a rage. The doors to the castle were still open, and when he noticed this, he tried to run into the Great Hall, but to no avail. He collapsed on the ground and started writhing in pain. Sirius ran up to him and started checking his pulse.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked,  
"The lycanthropy is taking its effect. He must have forgotten to take his Wolfsbane Potion." Sirius replied.  
"So you mean he's a-a- a Werewolf?"  
"Yes, we always called it his "furry little problem" back in school days. But right now, we've got to get out of here. We need to get outside."  
"I know just where to go." I said. "Follow me."

The place that I selected was easily accessible, well, for me anyways. I ran right outside the doors, turned around, and pointed up.

"Ok, how are we going to get up there?" He asked. The place in question was where the roof over the doors made a lip. I often went there to get a better view of the castle.  
"Jump." I replied.  
"I can't jump that high, are you crazy?"  
"I can." I said. Just as he lifted himself above the ground, Professor Lupin in full werewolf garb attacked him. He clamped down on his right arm. Blood spurted, bones cracked, it was a very gruesome memory that I'd care to not ever remember. I tried to use the force to get Lupin off of Sirius, but it didn't work. He was just too strong at this state. Just then, a wolf howled from somewhere in the Forbidden forest. Lupin left to see who exactly was calling him. Which gave me the time I needed to tend to Sirius.

His arm was obviously broken, lots of blood loss. I'd need to get him to the Hospital wing as soon as possible. I made sure his arm wouldn't move and I leapt up to the first floor section of the great staircase. Then the second, then the third, which is where I needed to be. The hospital was just in front of me, which made it easier. I walked towards the light and placed him on a bed. Madame Pomfrey stood up in an alarmed shock when she turned around from her current patient to look at the noise I was making. She ran over to where I placed my Godfather and looked at his arm.

"Oh, this looks terrible. How did it happen?" She asked as she scurried to get her wand and some medical equipment where she left them.  
"It was, uh… It was Lupin that attacked him…" I said,  
"Oh no… a werewolf bite this severe might give him the disease, but there is still time to remove the poison, but I'll need some help."  
"Tell me what you need done."

-BREAK—

The next morning, the first thing I did was go to the hospital wing to check up on Sirius. At this point, I was still unsure about who betrayed my parents if Sirius didn't. The thing was, that wasn't what he was locked up for. He was imprisoned for killing twelve muggles and Peter Pettigrew, another lifelong friend of his. When I got into the infirmary, Madame Pomfrey was looking him over. Standing beside her was a very important looking man in pale blue dress robes. He was flanked by two Dementors that hovered above him nearly at the ceiling.

He was, luckily, awake. But I soon realized that this was not lucky for him at all.

"Hey pup." I heard him say to me as I walked up to the bed.  
"Hey. How's it gone?" I asked.  
"Great. You brought me here just in time to get the Lycanthrope poisoning out of my system, so no furry little problem for me."  
"That's good. Who's your friend?"

"Ah, let me introduce myself," said friend interjected "My name is Cornelius Fudge. You might recognize me."  
"Yeah… you're the one that falsely arrested and imprisoned Sirius. I saw him take a wizard vow on his life that he was innocent."  
"Hm. No matter, he is still an escapee and shall be sentenced in just a few hours."

Pomfrey did not like the prospect of her patient leaving so soon, but Fudge replied that the trial was to go on without him.

"Is that legal?" I asked. Not that I knew much about wizarding law or anything, but that seems like one of the stupidest things imaginable.  
"Not entirely but he thinks he can get away with it. And he will. There's nothing anyone can do about it."  
"Yes, as minister, I must officially close this case. You have evaded my aurors for far too long and you need to be locked up, no matter what logical defense you might provide yourself with." The minister replied. With that, he walked out of the room followed by his ghastly bodyguards. No doubt he intended to start the trial as soon as he could.

"Sirius, we have to get you out of here. Do you think you can walk?" I asked.  
"Yeah, I'm fine except for the fact that I can't move my arm."  
"Good. I think I have a decent means of escape for you."

-BREAK—

Merely minutes after talking with Sirius, I found myself outside Hagrid's hut. He opened the door and let me in.

"Hagrid, where's Buckbeak? How did the trial go?"  
"Buckbeak, he… he… oi. BUCKBEAK'S BEEN SENTANCED TO DEATH! He was executed just last night, at about midnight."  
"About midnight…" I said to myself. "If only we could have done something about it."  
"I know, it's been hard fer me. I'd got myself passed out drunk from Firewhiskey tryin' to get over it."

Reluctantly, I made my way back to the Gryffindor common room to wait for Hermione to wake up. Surely she would have an idea.

"Hermione! Come on, there's someone I've got to show you!" I said as I saw her walk slowly down the stairs that led to the girl's dorms. I grabbed her wrist and literally pulled her out of the common room. I ran to the hospital wing in a mad sprint, Hermione barely able to keep up with me until at last we arrived at the door. This time, instead of the Minister, Dumbledore was discussing things with Sirius.

"Hermione, I'd like you to meet Sirius Black." I said. As soon as she saw him, she almost literally jumped back in horror. Although I can't complain, I see where she's coming from. After I calmed her down and got introductions out of the way, which included what happened last night, from Sirius proving his innocence to me passing out on one of the many couches in the common room.

"Who's this Harry, your girlfriend?" He asked casually.  
"What? No!" I said as I felt my face turn a scarlet red and took a step back. Said friend in question looked equally embarrassed. "Listen, we need a way to get you out of here before the Minister comes back with another Dementor to give you the kiss."

"I was thinking we could snatch Buckbeak before he gets killed." Hermione offered.  
"Nope," I replied, "I already tried that one. He was executed last night."  
"At what time?"  
"Hagrid said about midnight when I asked." I said. As I said this, her face lit up and her face was soon bearing a grin that would make Riley jealous.  
"Miss Granger, maybe you two can save more than one innocent life tonight. Nine turns should do it. Poppy, if you would please come with me for just a moment." Dumbledore said as he walked calmly out of the room.

"What's he talking about?" I asked.  
"That's something I'd like to know too." Sirius interjected. Hermione took a golden chain from out of her shirt and on it was an object that looked very much like a pocketwatch.

"What is that?" I asked.  
"It's a timeturner. It's how I've been getting to class all year."  
"Ohhh… that's how you do it. Didn't know time travel existed."  
"There's no time for that now, we have to get Buckbeak before he's decapitated." Hermione said before flinging part of the chain over my neck, forcing her to take a step closer to me. She spun the hourglass on the inside of the watch nine times as Dumbledore suggested. Instantly, the events of the last nine hours sped by us very quickly and left us dazed.

"It's eleven o'clock." Hermione said.  
"Plenty of time, but are there rules while time traveling?" I asked.  
"Don't do anything that could seriously alter the timeline you came from. And you can't make eye contact with any of your past selves."  
"Good to know. Follow me." I said as we made our way down quietly the staircase. Luckily, we didn't have far to go, seeing as the hospital was on the third floor.

We walked out onto the lawn with relative ease, but finding a place to hide where Hagrid couldn't see us for an hour proved very tricky. Finally, Hargird brought buckbeak from his place in the forest and tied him up surprisingly close to where we lay crouched.

"Was there a good reason for you choosing this time, Minister?" I heard Hagrid ask.  
"Not anything important, but I didn't want any students interfering with the execution." Fudge replied. "Before we begin, I must ask that you sign some papers."

"Now." I whispered to Hermione. I used the force to tap Fudge on the shoulder so that he would look the other way while we ran to hide behind the Hippogriff. She untied him quietly while I watched the party so that nobody saw us. After he was untied, we led him away as quietly as we could as Hagrid led the Minister into his humble adobe. It was then that we made a dash for it into the Forbidden Forest.

Not long after we ran, I remembered something vital.

"Hermione, what time is it?" I asked frantically.  
"Twelve O'clock sharp." She replied.  
"Close enough." I said and gave a howl similar to the one that I heard the first time reliving this timespace. Sure enough, I heard a reply and large footsteps heading our way.

"What the hell are you doing Harry?" Hermione asked angrily.  
"Saving the life of an innocent man, now we've just got to stun Lupin once he gets close enough."  
"You make that sound so simple." She replied.  
"Just watch. I have a plan." I said.

Moments later, Lupin in werewolf form came running into the clearing we found for ourselves. I used the force to create a shield that would prevent him from letting either of us come to harm.

"Now." I said.  
"Stupefy." Hermione said to her raised wand. One red blast of light and a crumpled howl later, we had one stunned werewolf on our hands.

"Alright, we leave him here, he'll wake up just fine in the morning. But now, we need to hide Buckbeak. Come on boy." I said, waving one of the many dead ferrets we were forced to bring along to get the animal to comply with us.

After we found a decent spot for him to rest, Hermione cast a sleeping charm on him and put up invisibility wards around the spot we selected.

"Now what?" She asked.  
"Well, we can't go back to the castle, because our old selves are still there, so we'll just have to wait here and hope Hagrid doesn't come this far into the Forest looking for Buckbeak.

-BREAK—

Just as planned, we barged into the room moments after our other selves disappeared.

"Well, how did it go?" he asked excitedly. "Hurry up, all this waiting is making me nervous." This brought a chorus of laughs from all three conscious people in the room.

"We saved Buckbeak, he's sleeping in the forest, we just need to get you out there so that you can get out of here."  
"Excelent. If you'll remember all that time ago, Pomfrey gave me leave to go, so let's head on out there." Sirius said.

Ten minutes later and one waking up of an angry animal later, Sirius was set to leave. He just wanted a few words with each of us.

"Harry, thank you so much for what you've done for me. I know that I don't deserve all of the kindness you've shown me. I've been a terrible role model. I don't doubt that you've wanted to kill me since you heard what was blamed on me. But that's not the full story. Peter Pettigrew, the one whom I supposedly killed, cast the spell and chopped off his finger to be left behind as evidence. I do hope you can forgive me for all the heartache I've caused you. Oh, and remember that Firebolt you got a few months back?"  
"That was you?"  
"Yep."  
"Wow, thanks."  
"Don't mention it. Seriously."

I gave him a swift hug and he turned to Hermione. They had a short conversation which resulted in Hermione nodding vigorously and her face turning a cherry red.

Sirius flew off into the early morning sky, we watched him go albeit a bit sadly on my part. Hermione had absolutely refused to mention a peep about what her and Sirius. We walked back to the castle hand-in-hand unknowingly, the rest of the month and a few days into the next passed with no worthy comment. But the fifth of April proved to be very exciting indeed.

A/N: Before you flame me for killing the rest of the storyline, read the prophecy again. There's still one thing left for this year that I plan to go about it in a unique way. Thank you all very much for listening and uh.. go post your thoughts into the review box, please?


	29. Wild Rat Chase

This one might be a bit short, but it got down to the point, which is always important. I felt that I needed this event to have it's own chapter. And here I am now, trying to fill up the spare room in the four pages my word document usually takes up with author's notes, so here we go!

Later that morning, when the others had awoken, me and Hermione gathered them in an empty section of the Gryffindor common room. After they had eaten breakfast, that is. Ron and Riley would kill us if we insisted to tell them immediately.

"Alright guys, what's this all about?" Ron asked angrily.  
"We've got some good news, and some bad news." I replied.  
"Well spit it out then, we've got classes to go to." Riley said.  
"Alright, alright. The good news is Sirius Black is innocent and that we helped him escape the death sentence for escaping Azkaban. The bad news is, he's a wanted convict and me and Professor Lupin are prime suspects."  
"WHAT?" Fred, George, Riley, and Ron shouted out in unison.  
"How is that possible?"  
"Why is the Ministry blaming you?"  
"How did you change your mind on him so fast?"  
"Alright, one at a time!" I said. "Let me explain. Last night, as I was getting ready for bed…" I started, and I retold the tale of the previous night, (or two, depending on how you want to look at it) successfully, although Hermione did help where she had the chance. There was not much to do about it though, trials were starting in two weeks' time and I needed a decent defense. I asked them briefly before we split up into two groups: the Weasley twins went to their class and the rest of us to ours.

I knew that I needed a good defense against Fudge. From the less than three minutes I spoke with him, he seemed likely to try and pull off some shenanigans that I knew would be very much frowned upon if revealed to the rest of the wizarding world. There was always the possibility of Veritaserum, which is very expensive to make and they would most likely deny me the chance. Although, I could offer to pay for any expenses of said serum. From what I understand, my vault is vastly greater than the trust fund that my parents let me have access to before coming of age and being able to manage the full account.

The rest of the month slowly passed, and after Defense Against the Dark Arts one day, Lupin asked me to stay a while after class.

"Harry, it's about Sirius." He said with a suddenly grim tone.  
"I know that you still think he's guilty, but I can assure you he's innocent." I replied.  
"It's not that, After what happened two weeks ago, I looked at a few of his memories in Dumbledore's Pensieve and I've seen that for myself. I've written him a letter apologizing for it."  
"Great, but what did you want to talk about?"  
"The trial. Sirius escaped again and we're the prime suspects. I know that Fudge will try to frame us for it, so we need to get together a good defense."  
"Could we bring Sirius in and get him to prove his innocence straight away?"  
"We could, but it might be difficult to do that seeing as he's a convicted criminal right now."  
"Ok, what about Polyjuice Potion, could we transfigure him into someone else and let him prove himself after it wears off?" I asked. I had limited experience with the potion from what Hermione's reading ahead in all of her books indirectly gave me the knowledge of.  
"I'm not entirely sure that's legal, but it might be worth a try if we can't think of a better way to do it." Remus replied.

"Ok, that solves that problem for now, and the trial is not until next month. But I have another question. What's the best way to get to the Great Hall from the Slytherin common room?"  
"You mean other than the way that everyone else takes?" The professor asked.  
"Precisely." I said. "I've got the map here."  
"Great. Let me see. What you can do is take this passage" he said as he pointed to what was barely a dot on the map after he activated it. "and take it straight up to where it exits here" this time, he turned around and pointed at the place where a window was missing, obviously replaced with a secret entrance.  
"There's a passageway there?" I asked surprised.  
"Precisely the reason there isn't a window there." He said. "It's been too long since I've had a good look at it. Wait, what's this?"  
"What?" I asked.  
"There's someone on this map whom I assumed was long dead. He was the one that got Sirius in Azkaban to begin with." He said. "Does Ron happen to have a pet?"  
"Yeah, he's got a pet rat. He's really old, and missing a…"  
"Missing a toe, right?"  
"Yeah." I said. Before I could ask what was wrong with that, he sprinted out of the classroom and up the great staircase. As fast as I thought I could run, I could barely keep up with the Defense professor. He had to wait a few moments at the portrait while I ran the rest of the way to give the password. Once inside, he made right for where Hermione, Riley, Ron, and said rat were sitting. We walked up to them with great looks of surprise on their faces.

"Ron, care to come with me for a moment?" He asked. Ron got up and I felt just the tiniest bit of nervousness, but Scabbers didn't wait. He jumped off of Ron's shoulder and ran out the common room door, having to claw at the painting for a moment before continuing. Remus ran after him, the rest of us followed, very confused. Just as they ran out the door, Lupin cast a inaudible spell on the rat, who instantly turned into a very short man and fell down the rest of the flight due to his crawling on his hands and knees. He scrambled to his feet as we ran down the first flight of stairs towards him.

"Who is that?" I asked as we ran down the next set of steps.  
"Seeing that Sirius is innocent, that is the man that turned your parents over to Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew. I would bet my life on it." The teacher replied as we continued to scramble down the stairs. Eventually, having made no progress on him by the time we were on the second floor, I decided to get ahead and jumped off the side of the balcony, landing somewhat safely on the bottom floor, just outside the Great Hall. I ran to the bottom of the stairs where Pettigrew was going to crash into me if he did not slow his scrambled pace. As it turns out, he didn't. He crashed into me and we both tumbled on the ground a good ways, but he sprang up and ran out the castle door before I could react. I got up and fell in line with the other four aiding me in my chase. We ran for a while, the professor marvelously keeping pace with me, as for my three friends, their fate was not as fortunate, as they slowed down and eventually stopped, too tired to move any longer.

It was dark outside, making it somewhat hard to see. Although, it might only have been me because I had a werewolf on my left and we were chasing a rat animagus, I think they are called. We were nearing the forest when Remus decided to try something.

"Harry, do you want to reign him in at any cost?" He asked.  
"Yeah, but I don't think killing him is the right way to do it." I said.  
"He's too fast for us, if we don't shoot him down, he'll escape."  
"Alright, but just stun him." I said as I shot a stunning hex at him. He dodged these and the several others that me and Lupin fired at him. Eventually, my partner was getting tired of this and started

"Avada…" I knew that word. It was the first of the two in the killing curse. I told him that killing him wasn't the right thing to do. I had no choice but to shove him aside and we tumbled to the ground in a tangled mess.

"Harry! What was that for? We could have had him! Lily and James could have been avenged!" He yelled as we pulled ourselves off the ground, getting angrier by the moment.  
"I told you killing him isn't the way to do that. And besides, that wouldn't be what they want. They wouldn't have known how to handle two of their best friends firing killing curses at each other!"

He thought about this for a long while before saying "I guess you're right. But now he's gone and so is any chance of us legally proving Sirius' innocence."  
"It wouldn't have helped if he was dead. He couldn't testify at that point." I said.

After another long moment of sitting there talking the situation over, we at last made our way back to the castle.

-BREAK—

The next weeks were spent in preparation for the trial, and me and Professor Lupin came up with no better idea on how we could get Sirius cleared. In a fit of desperation, I asked Hermione for help, to which she replied she'd been studying it for three weeks now. She seemed to know much about the subject, so we spent many a night pouring over magical law books concerning convicted criminals. After five days, we had absolutely no luck. There was just wasn't a way to get Sirius into the courtroom. The only way we could clear him or ourselves for that matter would be to provide accurate memories. Also, Veritaserum administering would be another way to do it, but they might be unwilling to do so.

The day of the trial was interesting to say the least, but I never knew the outcome was possible going into it at the start of the day.

AAND… that'll do it for today folks! Tune in next week to see what exactly happens at the trial. Doing this chapter was a challenge, seeing as Remus transforming into a werewolf was how Pettigrew escaped, but I managed it in due time. Although, according to my posting schedule, I'm two days early because I usually don't post the new chapters until Sunday night. I know for a fact that I'm sending out over two dozen notification emails every time that I post a new chapter, and a certain lizard is the only one that bothers to post a review. To recap, have a good week and send me a review!


	30. Trial

Hey guys! I tried to make this at least somewhat interesting, but seeing as we're in a court of law for most of this chapter, it can't really be that exciting. But I've got an idea to get the action up a bit. Let me know how it turns out!

-START CHAPTER—

The morning of the trial I awoke, very unwilling to get out of bed, but knowing I had to for the good of one of the last living links to my family. The trial for me and Lupin was to be separate from Sirius' trial. I had a feeling that it was to make sure that Sirius was innocent of his original crime, but when it was brought into public knowledge that he had no trial three days prior by one Rita Skeeter. I'm really getting to like her articles, first Lockhart now Fudge. I know that she could get really nasty, and someone that you definitely don't want on the opposite side of you.

A few of my friends would be coming along, namely, both sets of twins plus Ron. Ginny literally begged George to let her come along, but she was thwarted by him asking what interest it would be to her. Everyone was probably waiting in the common room for me, so it would be best to get dressed and go down stairs.

Once there, my suspicions were correct, and the other five were sitting on two couches waiting for me to go downstairs. The trial was to be at 8 o'clock AM. Breakfast didn't start until 8:30, so we were going down to the kitchens to get some food from the house elves.

"Alright guys, I'm up. Let's go, we've got to meet Lupin in his office in twenty minutes." I said as I approached where they were chatting, speculating about what would happen in a moment of seriousness that was very rare amongst our group outside of the classroom.

We did as I suggested and went to the painting that hid the kitchens, which was a extremely large fruit bowl. Fred ticked the pear (literally, it even jiggled around) and the painting swung on it's hinge and revealed the magnificent Hogwarts kitchen. Of course, I'd been here before on countless raids with the three Weasley brothers still attending, but it never seemed to shock me.

We asked one of the house elves to fix us up something, and we all asked for whatever we felt like eating. He happily left to go and prepare our requested meals. We sat at a table he conjured and talked for a bit about the general goings on about the school. After a while, the elf came back with him, three large trays of food and he set it down onto the table.

"I is being very happy to serve the young masters and mistresses." He said before milling about once more in preparation for the morning meal for the rest of the castle.  
"How can he do that happily? He must have slaved over that non-stop for us just to eat." Hermione said.  
"I'm sure he's always happy to work, Hermione." I replied. She seemed content, but her facial expressions betrayed her mind racing about thinking for solutions. We ate quickly, not wanting to be late for the portkey that a ministry official had given Lupin yesterday. As soon as we were finished, we walked quickly down to his office on the third floor.

Once we arrived, Lupin greeted us cheerfully and we patiently waited wordlessly for the portkey to activate. Once it did, the opened muggle envelope that was used for it glowed blue and a large 10 appeared on it. It slowly started counting down.

"Everybody hold on!" Lupin said excitedly. Everybody grabbed hands with each other and the professor grabbed onto Riley's shoulder. As it counted down to 1, I felt a tugging in my stomach, and it felt like I was riding on a broom but for the absence of the wind on my face. After three more seconds, we were thrown on the ground outside of the chamber. Picking ourselves up, we found that the trial was to start in five minutes. There were two large chairs in the middle of the room with rows of benches surrounding it in the circular room. Me and Remus took the two in the middle, seeing as we were the accused and the others were here to give testimony. Slowly, the side of the room on which the Wizengamot was to be seated started to fill up until at last the minister himself took his seat right in the middle of the rows and rows of distinguished wizards and witches.

"If all are present…" the minister started. I looked around to see that everyone was, in fact, present. My small group of friends showed up along with Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey, who had witnessed some of the events and were requested to appear. "Then we shall begin with the ruling." He continued, "The suspects are Harry James Potter and Remus Lupin. Crimes accused of is the escape of one Sirius Black. If all gathered here that witnessed one or more of any incidents involving these crimes, I would kindly ask you to deposit the memory of it into a small vial. These should be found underneath the seats along with instructions on how to cast the spell."

And sure enough, there were some. I lifted them up manually, not wanting to attract attention to those other skills I have. First, I thought of meeting Sirius for the first time; then following the directions on the parchment that was with them, extracted the memory from my mind and led it with my wand into the vial. It appeared to be a thin blue wisp of an object that resembled a long, slender hair.

I did this a few more times, putting in almost literally every memory of the man into these vials. After several minutes, Fudge had at least two dozen of these memories. I assumed that he would use a Pensieve with these as evidence, to which I was soon proved correct, and an assistant produced one of these stone bowls and deposited it gently on the minister's podium.

This one, apparently, was enchanted to pull everyone into the room whenever Fudge leaned into it, so we were sucked into the Pensieve.

When the contents of the room crash landed onto what looked like a dark forest, I soon realized that this was when me and Hermione were waiting the night out for morning so that we could give Sirius Buckbeak to fly off on. We sat there, doing absolutely nothing. The wizengamot took great interest in the creature we were sitting in front of, that is, the hippogriff Buckbeak. After several minutes of note taking, we jumped out of the basin and back into our chairs.

-BREAK—

It had been a long day of reviewing memories, and the council had apparently come up with a ruling on this case.

"Ahem. If I may have everyone's attention. Harry J. Potter and Remus Lupin are guilty of accused crimes. If the charges against Sirius Black are dropped, then there's will be also. If not, they will be imprisoned for a time to be determined." The minister said in his fanciest voice. Several assistants of the man soon began filing everyone out of the room and back to the portkey that brought them here. We grabbed ours, which had been re-enchanted in front of us to return to Lupin's office. I looked at the large wall clock that hung above the doors. It read 9:30. We had been in there all day, looking at what happened over the course of those twelve or so hours that compromised Hogwart's escapades with the Black family scion in recent years. The envelope flashed it's blue light again and we tumbled back into Lupin's office.

He thanked everyone else for their time, and asked me to stay a moment longer.

"Harry," Remus started after everyone left. "I know that Sirius is innocent, but that's not what Fudge wants. He would be perfectly happy to lock all three of us in Azkaban for life. Dumbledore's seat on the wizengamot won't help much there because of all those looking to support the minister to get ahead in his regime. What we need to do is get the memory of Sirius refusing to be your parents' secret keeper for the Fedilius Charm."  
"Ok, but I don't think we can owl him and ask for a life-saving memory." I said.  
"That's why I've got another plan set up…"

-FIN (for now)—

Alright, sorry this was so short. I wanted the trial to have its own chapter and I promise the end of this year will be in two chapters or less. I've been putting it off for far too long now, although this is chapter 30, about the end of year three, the gang will be back at Hogwarts for Harry's year 4 by the end of chapter 33 at the VERY latest. If not, I promise you can come and lynch me, provided you know where I live. MUWAHAHAHA!


	31. Error

Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to get chapter 30 uploaded. When I uploaded it, the website totally crapped on me and I had to wait 2 weeks for me to open the story page again, but I finally got it! So, without further to do, I present this here disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing that has anything remotely to do with this story, except for the character of Riley Granger and my user page.

Without further ado, I now present the new chapter:

Chapter 31: Error.

-START CHAPTER—

As it turned out, Professor Lupin was wrong in his assumption that Sirius was not to be allowed at his own trial. His plan was to have him connect the floo power at his home to the castle and handing him the memory that way, but since he was to be present, that was no longer necessary and he could just walk in there and hand it to the pompous minister himself.

The end-of-year exams were fast approaching and I had little to do outside of class other than study for said tests. Our classes continued as normal, and Hermione had yet to drop any more classes after Divination. She kept insisting that Ancient Runes, the class that Jace taught, was extremely interesting and worth our while, but since we were not required to take it, me, Ron, and Riley were none too keen to jump on it first chance we had. We did, however, elect to take divination, albeit for all different reasons. The class proved interesting, and I had a feeling all of the perfumes that Professor Trelawney burned up did to her more harm than good.

With Sirius' trial fast approaching, we had a ministry worker come to Hogwarts in ask who exactly saw the man. Upon interrogation, only Dumbledore, Madame Pomfrey, Ron, and the Granger twins were the only ones to actually see him while he was on school grounds in addition to me and Remus. All witnesses were required, of course, to attend the trial.

-BREAK—

When I was eating breakfast one morning, I got a letter from Sirius. It read:

_Hey pup,_

_I'm going to be flying into Hogsmeade tomorrow afternoon with Buckbeak. I'll be staying at the Hogs' Head Pub. Buckbeak will be camping out inside a cave on the outskirts of town, so he won't be a problem. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I know that Veritaserum plus an unaltered memory is unarguable truth about one's argument. I hope to see you before the trial on Saturday. _

_With Love, Sirius._

_P.S.: If the trial goes awry, please refer to me as "Snuffles" from then on._

It was short, but it got to the point quickly. He seemed to be in a hurry while writing the letter; as if he was in the middle of two very important things. I made a mental note of asking him about it later and put the letter into one of the many pockets in my robes and finished eating. But before I did this, I showed my friends and talked about what he could mean by "if the trial goes awry," but to no avail.

Somewhat reluctantly, we trudged off to class for our teachers to all prepare us for the exams, which they all assured us would be extremely difficult, even more so than last year. After a long day, we went up to the common room to get a full night's sleep. Hermione, as I'm sure, is planning on studying for several more hours before using her time turner to set herself back to when she was supposed to fall asleep to rest up properly.

Long story short, the days leading up to the trial were as gloomy as the recent rainy weather outside on the castle grounds. The day of, on the other hand, was quite, quite interesting.

-BREAK—

As I ate breakfast the following morning, I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about the trial. For all the rest of the world knew, Sirius was a cold-blooded killer that sold his best friends out to Voldemort and then tried to kill his nephew (which was me). But what they didn't know was the full story.

Sirius and Remus had both told me separately that he had convinced my father to let Pettegrew be the Potter's secret keeper. And just look at how that turned out. Sirius told me in another letter that he regrets not doing it earlier. His main concern was that with all of his antics of being an auror, it would be too easy for the Death Eaters to capture him and force the location of their hiding place out. The peaceful occupation that Pettigrew held at the time, a desk job at the ministry, would be much less susceptible to being forced out of him. But, as it turned out, he was in league with the Death Eaters for some time and in his cowardice sold my parents out to Voldemort, and well, we all know what happened next.

We didn't really have much time before the second trial, although it was two hours later than the previous. We would spend that time visiting with Sirius and the usual nonsense. I finished eating in a hurry and went to Lupin's office. I noticed that he wasn't sitting at the head table during breakfast, so I figured that he got up earlier to get the portkey from the ministry official that would deliver it.

When I arrived at the professor's office, said employee was handing Lupin what looked like an old soda can. As soon as this exchange was over, he looked at me eerily, and making sure to avoid me by several feet, and walked out of the room. After he left, we talked aimlessly for a bit, waiting for the rest of the group to show up. The "group" consisted of me, Lupin, Ron, Hermione, Riley, Fred, and George. Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey were going to arrive on their own. As we waited for the time on the soda can to wind down, I couldn't help but feel like the minister would try to tilt the scales against us in any way that he could.

-BREAK—

The contents of the second trial were very similar to the first, so I won't try to write the whole story in this journal. Long story short, Fudge did, in fact, try to sway the odds against us. What he did was try to bring in false witnesses, but when the rest of the Wizengamot collectively, unanimously, decided that all of the memories provided (which they were) and that the people the minister brought in were asked to leave. Said minister looked dejected soon after as the council once again unanimously announced Sirius to be innocent and cleared of all charges.

The article Rita Skeeter wrote about the day didn't make Fudge look much better than I already thought of him.

-BREAK—

**Sirius Black Proved Innocent: Fudge to Blame?**

_As not very many of you should know, the trial for one Sirius Black, found guilty without a trial of murder of one wizard and thirteen muggles with a single curse, was yesterday found to be false. It appeared that, despite the countless memories that were proven to be true by use of Veritaserum, greatly opposed witnesses that came in to speak on the minister's behalf. Contrary to all other witnesses, he did not ask to administer the truth serum to them or he did not ask for their memories for all to view in a Pensieve. It is now common knowledge that Fudge was guilty of denying Black a trial more than a decade ago, but now, his determination to make himself look good in the public eye drove him to do some very immoral things. Does his treachery know any bounds? We many never find out…._

-END CHAPTER—

Alrighy, once again sorry for the delay in putting up chapter thirty up due to a technical difficulty. Yes, I know that my chapters have been getting shorter and shorter every week, but this was rather important as it makes a very define split from the cannon series regarding Sirius. I promise, the next chapter I put up will be at least 3,500 words long. And next, we go back to the Dursley residence on Privet Drive, and well on the way into getting into the range of the physical Goblet of Fire book printed by Scholastic Press (winkwinknudgenudge shamelessunpaidadvertising winkwink).

Bye for now!


	32. There and Almost Back Again

Hey all! Nice to see you again. To be honest, I'm surprised I even found time to sit down and write this chapter at all this week (end, I don't get much done at all during the week); Let alone rant about Harry's thoughts enough to have the proper chapter length, even getting close to the limit I set myself at the end of the last chapter. (Note to self: DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN)

DISClAIMER: I own nothing that has anything to do with the story except for the character you know (and love, to a certain extent) as Riley Granger. I am not J.K. Rowling, I do not claim to be, and if I was, I would be at least twenty years older and be finished with this story YEARS ago. That, and it would be at least ten times longer than I'm planning on having this book.

HOLD UP! Before I start the chapter, I want to share this hardcore awesome website that I found while randomly screwing around on this internet. I wanted a decent chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the books other than the transcripts from mugglecast, and I found this:

Even though it hasn't been updated in years, it's still pretty awesome. I strongly suggest taking a look at it, enjoy!

-START CHAPTER—

The end of year exams were fast approaching, and before too long, they were finally here. As I went down to the Great Hall for breakfast, I met Hermione, Fred, and George. Ron and Riley weren't up yet, but that was to be expected from them, seeing as exams don't start until 10 AM. It was only eight o'clock, so they thought they could afford to wake up later.

"Hey guys." I said as I sat down to look around at what was available for me to appease my appetite with.  
"Hey Harry." Hermione said happily.  
"Hi." One of the Weasley twins said while I was looking around. The other repeated his brother and we once again fell to silence. I was quite confident that I would do well during all of the tests, except for Potions. The subject that we were forced to endure under the "teaching" of Snape left my knowledge of it to be lacking. I looked at the sheet of parchment that I was given in the mail yesterday. For some reason, they wanted the owls to deliver it to us instead of one of the teachers handing it to us.

It said that the Transfiguration test would be first, Potions second, Divination after lunch, Charms fourth, and last but not least I had Defense against the Dark Arts with Lupin.

-BREAK—

The practical part of the Transfiguration test was quite challenging indeed, but I think I managed to pull it off. The written test, on the other hand, was much, much easier than I originally thought it to be, making my time in finishing it increase greatly. After I was done, I looked around the small classroom to see that I was the first one to finish the written test.

After the exams on Transfiguration, it was down to the dungeons for Potions, the one that I most wanted to subtly be absent from, but I knew that Hermione would all but kill me and Snape would be more than happy to give me a "Troll" grade for the whole course. The potion that we were required to brew for the practical section was known as the Shrinking Solution. This potion would make the drinker less than an inch tall for two hours to perform whatever mischief that he may in that time. It was rather difficult, with the usual complicated directions on which direction to stir the mixture and how many times each. The written assignment, I was positive, was made as complicated as possible by Snape without being reprimanded by Dumbledore because of it. It seemed likely that he did this on purpose, but I made no comment on it and decided to merely take it with a grain of salt.

Lunch was rather uneventful, but the next class, Divination, was highly entertaining for all present.

I reluctantly made my way to the eastern tower, where Trelawney held her class. As I sat down, bombarded by the usual strong smelling perfumes that the dazed teacher always insisted on having lit. It annoyed the students to no end, but the teacher seemed to like them well enough. The practical part, which was always first, involved us in using all forms of divination that we studied through the year. These were a crystal ball, astrology, tea leaves, fire omens, and cartomancy (predicting the future with a deck of playing cards). After this, I was very pleased to notice that there was no written test, and that we were free to go after shuffling our decks and pulling cards from them. For this part, we were required to grab five of them, write them down, and make predictions about what they could mean. Someone thought it would be funny (no, not me, but I wish it was) to light their cards on fire and claim that it exploded of its own accord. The reason why I wished it was my idea, was because Trelawney gave that lucky student a 100 on the cartomancy area.

The charms class was, unfortunately, not as entertaining, but quite simple. We were required to perform the bubble-head charm on ourselves and cast a successful Cheering Charm on a depressed house-elf. The elves were very reluctant and, as a result, Flitwick had to cast the full body bind curse on them so that we could aim properly. I thought this was very unusual behavior from a house elf, but I saw that it cheerily banged it's head against the wall for disobeying one of it's masters, so I assumed all was well. The written portion consisted mostly on theory, so it was a graceful reprieve from the constant spellwork that we had performed all day.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was very deeply rooted in the practical exam, and there were only four questions on the written assignments. The practical involved us learning almost every spell we had learned over the year. Needless to say, I was confident that I aced both portions of the subject.

-BREAK—

The next morning, I awoke happy that the school year was officially over now, but saddened that I wouldn't be able to see a majority of my friends until September. Of course, Hermione would insist that I visit her place every day until then so that wasn't the problem. If only we could figure out a way to get to the Burrow for a few days during the summer to see the Weasley siblings. No doubt their parents would be overjoyed to see me again, especially their mother whose name currently escapes me.

All these thoughts were one step closer to reality when I got a letter from Sirius during breakfast.

_Harry,_

_Since I'm a free man and no longer bound to be on the run, I'd like to offer you something. When your parents died, you were supposed to come live with me, but since I was in Azkaban not a week afterwards, Dumbledore was forced to send you to your aunt and uncle. My proposition is this: I'd like for you to come live with me this summer. Although I do understand that you have some very close friends next door, and I'd respect the decision if you do choose to say with them._

_All the best, Sirius._

_P.S.: I have also sent a message to Dumbledore to ensure that this would not interfere with the complicated blood wards that your mother unintentionally set up around the Dursley residence._

I was overjoyed to say the least. No more Dursleys. No more Uncle Vernon to punish me for the slightest mistake in one of the many chores I was forced to perform during the summer. No more Dudley to try and use me as a human punching bag. Unfortunately, if I accepted, it left me in a state where I could no longer hang out with the Granger twins on a daily basis.

Unsure what to do, I showed all who were present at the Gryffindor table, hoping to get some advice.

"Go for it man." Fred encouraged.  
"Yeah, it should be good for you." George agreed.

Hermione was, needless to say, slightly upset about the proposition, and neutrally suggested "Do what you think is best."  
Riley was much more opposed to me staying next door to the two, claiming that my aunt and uncle overworked and underfed me. Which was true, but I wouldn't admit it out loud. After seeing what everyone said, I noticed Professor McGonagall walking towards the Gryffindor table. No doubt she was coming to talk to me about Dumbledore's letter.

"Mr. Potter, Headmaster Dumbledore would like a word with you in private after your meal. He will be in his office." She said, confirming my suspicion. "And the password is Lemon Drop" She added in a quieter voice. I thanked her and finished my meal away from my friends. I was glad that they left me alone to think; something that they know I do often and don't like to be interrupted for. As soon as I was finished, I went up the path I knew well behind the Great Hall, up two flights of stairs and hung a right. There, there was a stone Gargoyle that blocked the path. I told him the password and it stepped aside for me to walk up. Just as last time I was here, the headmaster had charmed the steps to act like a muggle escalator, letting the stair work for you instead of you walking up them.

As I walked in and took two nervous steps forward, not having been in here in over a year.

"Ah, Harry. I was wondering when you would join me." Dumbledore said as he walked down the flight of stairs that were on the right and left sides of his desk.  
"Yes. Professor, Professor McGonagall told me you wanted to see me." I replied.  
"That is correct. I assume you received a letter from your godfather this morning during breakfast yes?" He asked, and when I nodded my head in approval, he continued. "Then I assume you would want to live with him instead of the… uncomfortable… accommodations you have at your aunt and uncle's residence."

"Yeah… about that... I've given it some thought, but I haven't quite decided yet." I said. "If I do choose to live with Sirius, what would happen to the blood wards around Surrey?"  
"They would be transferred over to his place of residence if you do choose to acknowledge him as your guardian."

"Alright. I think I've decided." I said. "I want to stay with Sirius.

-BREAK—

That was the easy part. The hard part will be breaking it to Hermione. I knew inside that she wanted me to stay for her sanity, and indirectly, mine.

As I approached her, I forced myself to calm down, as I had become a bit nervous.

"Hermione…" I started.  
"Yes Harry?" She asked as she turned around to face me from where she was sitting on one of the couches of the Gryffindor common room.  
"Err… Remember that letter I got from Sirius this morning?" I asked. She nodded, and I continued. "Well, I think I've decided I want to go with him for the summer." As I said this, she nodded, and I suspected she was holding back tears. "Don't worry, I'll write to you, I promise."  
"You will?" She asked, obviously distressed.  
"Yeah. Every day, if Hedwig can fly that fast without passing out from sheer exhaustion." I said. She let out a small laugh.  
"Wow Harry, only you could make a joke as bad as that in a situation like this and make someone laugh."  
"I do try." I replied. This earned another giggle and a bone crushing hug that Mrs. Weasley would be jealous of. I returned the favor, although it lasted for longer than either of us intended, so we broke apart hastily, both of us blushing scarlet. I left without another word and slunk to the corner that me Ron, and the Weasley twins usually play Wizard's Chess. Sure enough, Ron and Fred were sitting across from one another, both obviously concentrating hard on the game.

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked casually.  
"No classes. And uhh… what's up with your face?" Ron asked.  
"Nothing. What are you talking about?" I lied out of my teeth. It seemed that George had looked behind me at Hermione, who was laying on the couch we were sitting on moments ago with a blissfully happy look on her face.  
"Aww. Is the famous Harry Potter having girl troubles again?" He asked.  
"What's it concern you?" I asked. After several moments of all three siblings staring at me, I replied. "Fine. I might be having girl trouble."

All three got maniacal grins plastered onto their faces as I retold the story. Oddly enough, they didn't say anything for long moments after I had finished.

"I think you might be able to deal with this one on your own, young apprentice." Fred said.

-BREAK—

Two days later, we were back on the Hogwarts Express heading straight towards Kings Cross Station in muggle London. I had arranged it with Sirius that Daniel Granger was not to pick me up with the girls, instead he would just get Hermione and Riley, but not after they insisted on saying a proper goodbye to me. He told me about the Black ancestral home, which was located right smack in the middle of muggle London; right where they never suspected it. He said the magic guarding it was too complicated to describe on paper, so he said I would just have to wait and see.

As we disembarked from the rather boring train ride, I couldn't help but think about my split attitude towards my current predicament. On one hand, I couldn't wait to see Sirius in person again. On the other, I can't stand to leave Hermione as alone as she could really get with Riley around. I would hate myself for one reason or another no matter what path I took, so I heeded my friend's advice and I chose to go with my "official" guardian. I knew that he would be overjoyed to see me, and since he wasn't wanted by half the country, he could walk out in public without fear of being hexed into oblivion. As the train pulled into the station, we stepped off of the train, grabbed our luggage, and walked out of the brick wall that served as a portal between our worlds. Sure enough, there were three adults standing idly a good twenty feet away, chatting about whatever had taken their fancy at the moment. We walked towards them, calling and waving practically the whole way there. After a moment, they saw us and started closing the distance between us. Once it was gone, I ran up to Sirius and enveloped him in a huge hug that he returned. He picked me up and swung me around once before setting me down.

"So, how have you been?" I asked.  
"Great. Thanks to you, Remus, and Rita Skeeter, I'm a free man again! HA!" He shouted the last part out of sheer excitement. He had obviously not gotten used to that part yet. After more than a decade in Azkaban that it would really put a damper on your spirits, but the Sirius in front of me seemed strangely exempt from that rule.  
"Glad you're enjoying yourself so far. Before we get going, I'd like to say goodbye to them real quick."  
"Go for it." He replied.

I walked over to where the other two families were having their separate reunions, said goodbye to each of them individually. My goodbye to Hermione took much longer than expected, because she gave me another huge hug and whispered goodbye in my ear. I returned the gesture as we split apart. I still had my hands on her shoulders as I said

"See you soon, and tell your mum I said hi." We shared one last goodbye hug just before I walked off with Sirius.

-BREAK—

When we disapparated, we were standing on an ordinary street with nothing particularly special on it. Sirius said that there was quite some protective magic on his place, so I was ready for anything. Sirius merely looked around for a moment before walking over to a fire hydrant. He pulled out his wand, placed the tip on the head of the thing, and stated his full name. At once, the street itself began to expand greatly to accommodate another apartment complex. Except it was just one, large home. It looked cozy enough for what was to be expected.

Sirius explained it was for "security reasons" when they first built it three hundred years ago, but now, considering the dying off of all family members associated with dark magic, or anything shady in any stretch of the imagination, it was merely an annoyance with which to deal with before returning home. The inside was very shabby also. It looked as if it had not been cleaned up in years. It seemed like it was a truly majestic place if it would be in its prime condition. Now, it only seemed to be covered in layers of dust only hinting at its former glory.

"Welcome Harry, to my ancestral home." Sirius said happily and yet sadly at once. "Kreacher!" Then, an old, extremely ugly house elf apparrated in front of us. He had an abnormally large head, a long nose, and crossed eyes. He bowed respectfully at Sirius, and then proceeded to mutter a string of incomprehensible words at me, which, knowing a character type such as this, would most likely be curses. "Kreacher, if you would please to make me and my charge here some lunch. And from now on, you are to listen to Harry as if he was me."

"Yes masters." He said in a groggy, scratchy voice and disappeared once more to find us something to eat.  
"Well. It isn't much now, but after we clean it up a bit, I'm sure it'll look as good as new." Sirius said.  
"It looks nice." I said, even though it wasn't exactly true, it would do in a pinch. "Yeah, once we get this dust off everything and clean up a bit, it should be fine."  
"So, what do you want to do now that we're here?"  
"I think I'll have a look around." I said.  
"Well, if you want to explore, let me give you the official Black Family tour."

-BREAK—

It was a month after these events that I got a letter from Ron inviting me and Sirius to the Quidditch World Cup in two weeks. I quickly accepted after checking to see if it was fine with my guardian. He also said that he sent another invite to the Granger twins, and that they would be joining us as well. It would be just like during the school year, everyone that I hang out with on a regular basis would be there.

In the time in between, I had, of course, kept Hermione informed of the happenings and misadventures of me and Sirius at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. She had been very generous in both length of her letters and the speed at which she replied to my, admittedly short ones. It was as if she locked herself in her room as soon as she got my reply and didn't leave until she was done.

The two weeks leading up to the game was nowhere as exciting as the two days both before and after the day of it.

-END CHAPTER—

Whew, and I can't believe I did that whole thing in two days! I'm impressed with myself. Normally, I have more time and get less done, but I think I've gotten out of the Doldrums I had sailed myself into as far as plot advancement and decided to knock out most of the summer vacation for this year. Also, I think I might just have to hook Harry up with his girl before I originally planned because of the subtle developments in the last two chapters and the extremely blatant ones you see pictured in this mess of letters that people actually read for enjoyment. Also, tell me what you think about Harry living with Sirius. It was something that I knew was inventible since I freed Sirius before he did what he did at the end of book five. If you don't have any clue what I'm talking about, stop reading, shut down your computer, and I don't want to see you here until you're done reading all the books, because otherwise this can seriously spoil the hell out of you. I can't wait for the next opportunity to sit down with my laptop and some of my favorite songs known to man. (Rock band called Skillet if you're really curious. Go look them up if you're into that kind of stuff. It's awesome, trust me.)

Enough of my rambling in the author's notes. Go do something productive, and maybe send me a review!


	33. Quidditch and Hogwarts

A/N: Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for not being able to update this as early as usual. I had something going on all Saturday afternoon and I wasn't able to get back home until 11 PM, and after a long day, I was a bit swamped so I didn't bother writing more and I just crashed out. I will start trying to get some done during the week so that I can get longer chapters, or even *gasp* more frequent updates. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Hopefully, if I forget to update during the weekend, I will be able to update before Thursday night.

Also, is it bad that my Microsoft Word program added the words Hermione, Hogwarts, Weasley, Galleon, Dumbledore, and Voldemort to my dictionary because I use them so often in this?

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in this story except the character of Riley Granger, and even for that I don't feel it's worth the effort to go to the U.S. Patent Office and get it trademarked. Now, on with the story!

-START CHAPTER—

I finished reading the letter, even the thought of thinking about it made my head spin. I had so many questions to ask Ron about the tournament. How many games were there going to be? How long would it last? When exactly do we leave? Are Sirius and I going to visit the Burrow beforehand?

Ron's letter said Hermione and Riley were going to be there. That thought alone made me just giddy about going there. As I made my way from what I had been calling "my bedroom" for the past few days, I found Sirius, who was in the kitchen ordering Kreacher to make lunch for the two of us. I walked into the room and called out

"Sirius, there's something I'd like you to see." I said.  
"What is that there?" He asked as I showed him the letter.  
"A letter I got from one of my friends. You remember Ron, right? Well, his family invited us to the Quidditch World Cup."  
"Say what now? Really? I'd love to go, if that's what you were getting at."  
"Yeah." I replied as he finished reading the letter.  
"What's this?" Sirius asked, "It looks like your girlfriend is going to be there too."  
I blushed as I said "She's not my girlfriend."  
"Sure did look like it to me. Come 'ere you!" Sirius said before locking my head in between his side and arm and rubbing his fist on top of my head as he kept it down. Of course, I let him do it. I knew that he was only messing around, but I had the feeling that he was right… What am I saying? Hermione, my girlfriend? Never in a million years."

I shrugged it off as child's play and looked back at the letter. We would be leaving in two weeks, so I wasn't in a huge hurry to pack up my things. In the meantime, I had sent a reply to Ron accepting on both me and Sirius' behalf. I had managed to convince Hermione to ask her parents if her and her twin sister could stay over at the Burrow for the last two weeks of summer, just as the Cup started. I had received and affirmative and immediately sent Hermione's letter and a quick explanation on a separate sheet of parchment with Hedwig to Ron. The weeks flew by and finally the day we were to leave arrived with a flash and a bang, quite literally.

-BREAK—

I awoke… And I screamed bloody murder. Somehow, my scar pained me dreadfully, like something I had never experienced before. I had a dream about Voldemort. For some reason, it seemed all too clear to me, as if I was inside his head. He said something to a man that looked increasingly like Peter Pettigrew the more I thought about it. DAMN, I knew I should have killed him while I had the chance. I let him live, and look how he repays me, by SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO VOLDEMORT! I didn't have too long to think before Sirius came running into the room.

"Harry! What's wrong?" He asked in a frantic tone.  
"It's my scar. I don't know what's wrong, it hurts like hell." I muttered just loud enough for Sirius to hear.  
"Well then come on, we need to get you to the Burrow. Molly's a fully trained healer, you know?" He said before dragging me downstairs and throwing a handful of Floo Powder into his fireplace in the parlor while shouting out "The Burrow" Before shoving me in and following immediately after.

I crash landed in the Weasley living room. I was surprised to see Riley and Ginny sitting on one of the two couches in the room, as if waiting for me to arrive. As soon as I remembered that Sirius would land on top of me if I didn't move, I rolled to the side just before he landed right where I was sitting.

"Harry, how are you feeling?" Sirius asked.  
"I'm fine no, it was weird, it was really bad for like five minutes then it goes away in a matter of seconds."  
"What's wrong with him?" Riley asked as she got up and walked over to where we were.  
"My scar. I woke up a minute ago and it hurt like nothing I'd ever experienced, and that's saying a lot." I said as I held up my right arm to her.  
"What happened to your arm, if I may ask." Sirius said.  
"Uhh… Alright, but please don't freak out about what you're about to see." I said. Turning around, I decided to start with the least shocking one, the Force. I lifted him up over my head, spun him around to where he was facing me.  
"Whoa. That's some strong levitation there, pup." Sirius said, surprised.  
"Yeah, but that's not the worst part." I said as I took out my lightsaber and activated it. I twirled it around for a few moments before explaining "this bugger here can cut through anything. It's made of pure energy, so I'm told."

I decided to finish the trifecta of surprises to the man by pulling off the glove I had gotten about a year ago now to show him my metallic arm.

"This is what happens when a lightsaber slices your arm off. Of course, I had it replaced with a robotic one, but that's beside the point. How that happened is too long a story on its own to be told on a whim." Sirius, and even more so Ginny, was surprised by what I had just revealed about my personal life. Riley looked at the two and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yeah, I remember not being so shocked about this, but it might have been because it was a gradual releasing of information, and not all at once like that." Riley said. I agreed with her just as Hermione walked into the room. She almost literally squealed when she saw me and spun me around to pull me into a hug. Needless to say, I returned it, happy to see my best female friend again after two and a half months.

Just as expected, Sirius gave a howl and an approving clap. Hermione looked a bit annoyed, but blushed despite it. I for one held as stoic a face as I could, but I couldn't help crack a smile at him.

Just then, Ron came into the room followed by the Weasley twins and their mother.

"Hey Harry! So great to see you again!" Ron said  
"Yes, it is quite wonderful…" George started.  
"To see you in one piece…" Fred continued.  
"With Hermione!" They both finished together.  
"Come on guys, how many times to I have to tell you that that is not funny?" Hermione replied.

"All too many…"  
"It seems" The twins said again.

"Alright boys, girls, it's just about time to go, we need to get to the portkey before it leaves in two hours." Mr. Weasley said as he strode through the living room to the front door. He waved us all to him before stepping out the door.

-BREAK—

An hour and a half later, myself Sirius, the Weasley children minus Bill and Charlie, and their father, had successfully trekked on foot from the Burrow to a random spot on the plains surrounding their home where an old boot was sitting. I would be surprised by this, but because of my previous knowledge of portkeys, I knew that this would take us straight to the field that the final game would take place on. I was told in one of Ron's many letters throughout the summer that it would be only one game, and that it was the Bulgarian team versus the Irish one.

Mr. Weasley told us that it wasn't due to depart for another half hour so we waited and chatted about whatever was on our minds, most of it happened to be Quidditch.

When the portkey did activate, we made sure that we were all holding onto it so that nobody was left behind.

When we landed, we were standing on a patch of dead grass in front of what looked like an entry point to a fairground. There were three people standing there, two of them had their wands out waiting for who knows what. We walked over to them and handed them our tickets.

"Ah. The Weasley family, and friends. Shall I find a guide to bring you to your tent, or will a map do nicely?" One man said.  
"No thank you, just a map should be fine." Arthur replied as the guard did so and waved his wand to open the gate. We walked in and at this point I could've sworn I heard the other wizard point his wand at the third person and said "Obliviate." I would have to talk to Hermione about that later.

We walked for a long time, following the Weasley patriarch to the "tent" that we were assigned. As we approached it, I couldn't help but notice that the colors of the tents, and to a large extent the people wearing some clothing were decked out in green and white with some orange. The colors of Ireland, I think. After a while, the excessive green started to fade away and solid grey tents started to be the norm. In the distance, I could see red flags flying along with red and white tents. Obviously Bulgarian, but I kept these thoughts to myself. The people milling around the ground were talking mostly about one Victor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker. I had picked up snippets of conversation that he was one of the best seekers in the world. He was only seventeen to boot.

Good thing he doesn't go to Hogwarts, or I would have my hands full. Just as I thought this, Mr. Weasley stopped in front of the usual waist high tents. I thought something was off about them, like how they were so small, but I figured the wizards could figure something out.

Sure enough, when I stepped in, there was a full two-story apartment complete with a kitchen, parlor, bathroom, and several bedrooms.

"I love magic." I said to myself as I saw all this. The match wasn't until the following day, at three o'clock, so we had plenty of time to mess around until then. Sure enough, it happened. I won't bother recounting all of it because there is in fact, time when the adventures of Fred and George Weasley are left undocumented.

-BREAK—

The next morning I awoke earlier than the rest of my party. I wanted to do some shopping around the marketplace, as it was called. They had set up a large square of stands that sold all sorts of items that the average Quidditch fan would like. As I browsed the wares, I noticed something that caught my eyes. It was a simple looking pair of muggle binoculars.

When I asked, the man running the shop said "Ah, I see you have good tastes young man, these are Omnioculars, they can record events and will play them back to you provided that they happened soon enough. They can also play the clips back in slow motion for you to get a better picture of. Plenty useful in professional Quidditch, one of my finest inventions if I do say so myself. I could demonstrate if you'd like." When I replied affirmative, he showed me a small red button on top of the thing near the front. This one was obviously the record button, there were two rotating wheels on each side that would play it back faster or slower, depending on which one you turned. After playing around with it for a few minutes, I told him

"I think I like these."  
"Ah, do you now? Are you interested in buying one?" He replied.  
"Yes, I'll take eight pairs."  
"That'll be fourty Galleons then. Might I inquire your name good sir?"  
"Ah yes. Don't be shocked, I get this a lot." I told him as I lifted up the hair in front of my forehead, revealing the tell tale lightning bolt scar that most, if not all, wizards identified with me.  
"Mr. Potter… Pleasure doing business with you." He said in a half-stupor.  
"You too. Have a good day." I said as I walked back to my tent.

I returned just as everyone was getting worried that I was missing. There was quite a large clamor about my returning. Not too long after I got back, I proceeded to break out the bag and handed them out. Two each went to both sets of twins, one for Sirius, and one for Ginny. I couldn't help but get her one for fear of making her feel left out. She thanked me profusely while blushing just as much.

-BREAK—

The game itself was something to be marveled at on its own.

As we walked up to the mile-long stadium along with thousands of other people, I couldn't help but feel like I was going to be having the time of my life for the next few hours. We were arriving just as everyone else was, which made it difficult to stay together because of the shuffling masses all eager to get to the same place. Once we got there and found a reasonable seat about halfway up the large stadium, I realized something odd: the pitch itself was the size of the one at Hogwarts. The only difference was that the stands extended much farther outwards than did the ones at school. I estimated we were about thirty meters from the closest end of the pitch when a shrill whistle blasted followed by the words:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you to the 422nd annual Quidditch World Cup of Bulgaria against Ireland!" As the announcer said this, the mascots of both teams appeared. The Irish team had little men that looked very similar to goblins without the garish features. They had on green overcoats with ridiculously large top hats that were as tall as they were.

"Leprechauns!" Ron said, "I've always wanted to see one in person!" Apparently, they were Leprechauns. They started throwing out gold to everyone. It must have been thousands of Galleons they just threw to the crows. Ron gave me five of them, saying that it was for the omnioculars. I thanked him, put the money in one of my pockets, and aimed my pair at the pitch.

Next, was Bulgaria's mascots: Many silvery-haired women dressed in scarlet red robes flying around the pitch dozens of meters off the ground, without brooms. And they were absolutely beautiful. Although, I didn't seem as charmed by them as I thought I should be. I mentally added them to the "ask Hermione" list, then retracted the statement as soon as I heard someone shout "Veela!" Apparently, Bulgaria's mascots were Veela. Not long after, the players themselves made their way onto the field, With Victor Krum heading the Bulgarian team and a player named Mullet led the Irish team.

It was a close battle as soon as the game started, with the chasers fighting over the Quaffle. Not long after it started, it seemed that Krum spotted the snitch. He flew straight at the ground, and Irish seeker Aidan Lynch rushed after him. Just as he was going to hit the ground, he pulled up. Unfortunately for Lynch, he didn't. He tumbled to the ground and a mediwizard flew out to help him. It seemed as if Ireland would win even if Knrum did catch the snitch. They were ahead 130-10 after the first half-hour of the game. This continued for some time until Krum decided that his team couldn't win even with the help of the Snitch, caught it as soon as he could. The final score was 170-160 in favor of Ireland. Instantly, half of the crowd apparrated away, and the other half stayed to congratulate the winning team. My group was of the second half. We stayed for some time until everyone was ready to go, and by that time, the stadium was almost empty.

-BREAK—

"Well, that was fun." I said after we got back to the tent. It was well past three A.M., and everyone looked as if they could pass out where they stood.  
"Yeah. Did you see Ron's face when Krum flew onto the pitch? He looked as if Christmas had come early this year." Riley said, looking at a very annoyed Ron.  
"Shut up Riley, what do you know? I could've said the same to you." He replied.  
"Well I'm not the one that bought an animated miniature of him today." She said. He pulled said figure out of his pocket in a grim concession. He set it on the table and it immediately began climbing over stacks of books, magazines, and feet.  
"Look see? He's working out." Ron said in a sweet voice.  
"Aww… Isn't little Ronnykins a bit young to be a daddy already?" One of the Weasley twins said, I couldn't tell which at this hour.

"DEATH EATERS!" Came a shout from outside.  
"Come on guys! Fred, George, take Ginny. Percy, take everyone else and get out of here as fast as possible." Mr. Weasley said. Not unwilling to comply, me, Ron, Hermione, and Riley ran out of the tent following Percy. He led us into the forest surrounding the campground; constantly looking back to make sure that we weren't falling behind. I tripped over a tree root, not paying attention to where I was putting my feet and i passed out unconscious on the spot.

When I awoke, I found that no one else was there. I stood up slowly, feeling an intense pain in my head where I had hit it on the ground. I heard voices calling my name. I brushed myself off and checked for my wand. It wasn't there. I started panicking. I looked around on the ground nearby, I couldn't see it anywhere, even with my lightsaber activated. Not too far in front of me, there was a figure standing there. I heard him shout out an incantation and vanished, along with the Dark Mark that had appeared in the sky some hours earlier. I ran over to where he was standing and looked on the ground. Sure enough, there it was. I didn't have much time to celebrate, because as soon as I stood up, someone shouted from behind me

"Stop whatever it is you are doing and turn around slowly with your hands in the air." I complied, not wanting to get into any trouble, and I saw ten men with wands pointed at me come forward.  
"State your name." One of them said. I complied and I heard a few gasps.  
"Boy, what were you doing here?" Another said.  
"Well, I was returning from the game when the Death Eaters attacked. I ran off into the woods with my group and I tripped and hit my head. When I woke up, I saw someone vanish the Dark Mark, and that's when you came in."  
"Mr. Potter, if that's who you really are, we'll need to check your wand, if you don't mind." A third said as I handed my wand to him. He cast the "Priori Incantatem" on it and a green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth erupted from it. It was a much smaller version than the one that was in the sky, but it was the same nonetheless.

"I'm sorry Mr. Potter, but we'll have to take you in for questioning."  
"NONSENSE!" A familiar voice called out. "What are the chances of Harry Potter conjuring the Dark Mark?" It was Arthur Weasley. He couldn't have come at a more opportune time.  
"Uhh…" One started. Several others did this, but no one thought up a reasonable argument.  
"Let me through, I want to see him. Don't tell me you banged him up at all." He said as a pathway cleared. I could see everyone that had come with me on the trip: Mr. Weasley, Ron, Fred, George, Hermione, Riley, Sirius, and Percy were all present. As soon as I could see her, Hermione rushed forward and nearly tackled me in her attempt to give me a hug.

"Harry! Where were you, you were gone for two hours! I was… we were so worried!" She said in a rush.

"Whoever had your wand, Mr. Potter, used it to conjure the Dark Mark. He was very smart, using yours. We do apologize for our actions. I am Kingsley Shacklebolt." He said, holding out his hand to me after Hermione released her vice grip. I shook it and he grinned. "Alright men. This area is secure. Let's move out." Instantly, all ten apparrated away before we could say another word to them.

-BREAK—

We spent the next week at the Burrow before school started. Sirius dropped by every day to chat about whatever was on our minds.

The ride to Hogwarts was very uneventful other than the annual Malfoy visit. We dispatched him quickly and called it a day. There was, however, a great announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to inform you that Hogwarts, along with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be reviving the Triwizard Tournament. Hogwarts will be hosting the tourney. The members of the two visiting schools will be arriving tomorrow evening, so I suggest you all get a good night's sleep to welcome our guests." It was Dumbledore speaking, in the Great Hall at the opening feast.

I wondered what exactly the Triwizard Tournament was, as I forgot to ask Hermione about it. I figured I would find out the next day as I dropped onto my new bed and fell asleep.

-END CHAPTER—

So, how was it? Please leave a review telling me! I would appreciate all feedback that you might offer. Until next time, AA out.


	34. Out of the Goblet and into the Fire

A/N: Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge a couple of things:

Sorry for not updating last week, but it was Easter weekend, what do you expect?

I realize that the ending of the last chapter was the cop out of the millennium, so I'll try to atone for that in this chapter.

-START CHAPTER—

The next night, sure enough, the parties from Durmstrang and Beaubatons were present to present themselves to Hogwarts. They tried to make as splashy an entrance as possible: Durmstrang's party consisted of the many seventh-year students breathing fire through a series of complicated charms. Notably, along with Headmaster of Durmstrang Igor Karkaroff, Viktor Krum was present. I knew he was playing for the Bulgarian Quidditch Team, but I didn't expect him to still be of schooling age. Ron was gushing about this fact: His face went pale for several moments and he was unable to speak for the rest of the feast. Although, being Ron, he had an excuse to do so.

Beaubatons, however, was a different story; but they also tried to make an impressive entrance. But theirs was quite the opposite of their predecessor. They flaunted their Veela powers up and down the Great Hall in synchronized dancing. Headmistress Madame Maxine was also, like Hagrid, a half-giant with magical powers. Although it wasn't fact, it could be assumed due to her almost four meter height. She strutted to the head table and took a seat next to Karkaroff. It was interesting how seating arrangements were made. The students of Beaubatons were seated with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs when there wasn't room at the other table; and those of Durmstrang took their seats at the Slytherin table.

These chains of events brought me to several previous events that led me to this point.

-Flashback—

_Dear Harry,_

_I'm sorry that I wasn't able to speak with you in person, but I caught word that Rita Skeeter was writing an article about my furry little problem, so I had to take off. Most parents wouldn't take too kindly to a were wolf teaching their children, and you know how nasty she can be when you get on her bad side. Don't worry though, we will be able to visit during the school year, maybe see how your Patronus is coming along._

_From, Remus_

I had gotten this letter a month into summer vacation. He did come by to discuss it with me and Sirius. The night Sirius was at Hogwarts was also discussed, and Remus was sorry that he never got to apologize. He did explain that he forgot to take his Wolfsbane potion before he rushed out of his quarters to see what the commotion was. All in all, it was a good visit, we had seen each other once since then, even if it was only for a few moments.

-Another flashback—

"Boys and girls, as you all know, the Triwizard tournament was created all those years ago to promote peace and intermingling between the three schools. The tournament was revived with heavy cooperation of the ministers of the three countries competing. The winner of this tournament will receive one thousand Galleons and, consequentially, eternal glory for doing so. I would also like you all to know that the famed Goblet of Fire will be brought into the Great Hall except for during meal time for all to enter the tournament. To enter, you must write your name and school on a strip of parchment and drop it in. Please note that due to the terms of the revival of the tournament, you must be at least seventeen years of age to enter." This was Dumbledore speaking, at the opening feast. Fred and George gave him several obnoxiously loud boos at his last statement, but seemed to be formulating a plan on how to enter. "Further, I would like to give a warm welcome to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. He agreed to come out of retirement for this year until I am able to find a permanent replacement for him. Give a round of applause to Alastair Moody."

His entire face was scarred and he had a "crazy googly eye" in Riley's words. He looked like he was a former Auror judging by all the scars on his face and hands. He was short, squat, and was constantly sipping at whatever was in his hip flask. I had a feeling it wasn't just water or pumpkin juice.

-Later—

It's been three days since the other schools joined in the fun, and Fred and George came up with a plan to enter themselves into the tournament.

"Harry…"  
"We need to talk…"  
"About the tournament." The Weasley twins said.  
"Alright, what do you need?" I asked  
"We've figured out a way to enter…"  
"And we need your help for it." They replied.

Their plan was genius. They wanted me to use the force to pick up their entry slips and lift them into the Goblet. I wondered why they couldn't just walk up to it and do it themselves, but it seemed that Dumbledore drew an ageline on it. A good bit of the school was present for our little stunt. It worked without a hitch for a few moments, but then the three of us were blasted back and Fred and George's parchments erupted from the fire slightly crispy on the edges, we were a bit banged up from the fall, but otherwise, we were fine.

"Well, so much for that plan." I said. "When you think up something else, let me know, maybe I can help."  
"Thanks Harry…" George… I think, started  
"You're the best." The other finished.

The students present filed out quickly after our stunt failed. It goes without saying that Hermione was furious at me for going through with it, while Riley and asked about the details. I wondered where they had been all day, but seeing as it was a Saturday, there was not much to think about.

-Later still—

I was at the Jedi Temple for my visit with Obi-Wan for this week. He was telling me how the official Jedi exam was coming on soon. With the war launching, the apprentices would have to take the initial exam a year earlier than normal. I wasn't dismayed by this. Rather, I was pleased and rather depressed that they would to that. If they wanted apprentices to achieve knighthood a year earlier, it would be apparent that they were short on active Jedi at the moment. After a quick review of our exercises and meditations, we launched into our sparring. It was after this that my master wanted to speak with me about something important.

"Harry, you know of the war that is brewing, correct? Well, I as well as the Council believes that there is a traitor in the midst of the Republic. I want you to be careful while traveling anywhere in this universe. And trust no one here. That is of the utmost importance. Only truly believe what I or your Professor Beleren tells you about this place. These worlds are becoming more and more treacherous by the minute, and I want you to be prepared."

-Even later-

It was October 31st, Halloween. Today was the day that the Triwizard Champions would be selected. The Goblet of Fire was brought from behind the head table where it spent mealtimes to the middle of the Great Hall. After everyone was finished eating, Dumbledore went up to the podium in front of the head table to make a speech in preparation for that night's entertainment

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, we will be selecting the three champions for the Triwizard Tournament. Now, I know that some of you who were not eligible to enter tried to do so anyway. I assure you such behavior will not be tolerated at this school." As he said this, everyone knew that he was looking at me, Fred, and George, but he continued without pause. "Also, the minister asked that the Daily Prophet have permission to send a reporter here every week, and I have allowed them to bring Rita Skeeter into Hogwarts. Please, do not be nervous to answer any questions that have to do with the tournament or any other related gossip. If I receive complaints that she is becoming too personal with her questions, then I will have no choice but to evict her from the castle. Without further ado, I will prepare the Goblet to select our champions."

He then walked over to the oversized cup and cast a wordless spell on it. Soon after, the usually blue fire turned ghost white as a scrap of parchment flew out of it and into Dumbledore's hand.

"And the Beaubatons champion is… Fleur Delacour!" The crowd erupted in cheers as she walked up to the headmaster and shook hands. He motioned over to a side door behind the head table and she walked into it. As soon as the door closed, another piece of parchment erupted from the goblet.  
"The Durmstrang champion is… Victor Krum!" More cheers and another handshake took place. After several long moments, a third parchment flew from the cup.  
"Last, but not least, the Hogwarts champion is… Cedric Diggory!" At this, the whole castle erupted into cheers; the Hufflepuff table offering more than the other three houses combined. He stood up from that table and Dumbledore showed Cedric to the door and he proceeded to follow him to the head table when a fourth came out of the Goblet of Fire. Dumbledore turned around caught it just before it hit the ground.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it appears that the Goblet has selected a fourth champion. The second Hogwarts champion is… Harry Potter." Dumbledore said this barely above a whisper. He had to repeat it for everyone to hear. Everyone looked to the Gryffindor table to where I sat. How did my name get in there? I surely didn't enter myself, my best idea failed yesterday. Did some Slytherin seventh year think that it would be hilarious if I was forced to compete?

I sat there in shock for several moments before Dumbledore had to prompt me once again to go up. I was very unwilling for reasons less than obvious to me at the time, but as I write this, I realized that I didn't want the fame of merely being in this tournament on top of being the one to defeat Voldemort. Reluctantly, I walked up to where the headmaster was standing near the goblet. He had an expression of stark fear on his face. He said nothing, but motioned for me to follow him into the other room. Once out of sight of the students, Dumbledore turned on me and asked in a maddening voice

"Harry, did you put your name in that goblet?"  
"No sir," I replied  
"Are you absolutely sure?" I nodded my head. He then slowly straightened up, took on his usual neutral face, and continued on.

We arrived at a small parlor of sorts, one where Fleur, Victor, and Cedric were sitting with an aged man I recognized as Ollivander. As we approached them, they were all shocked at what happened as Dumbledore recounted the events.

"I know that cheating is a normal part of this tournament. Would that be how someone entered Harry into it?" Krum asked in his thick accent.  
"I'm afraid so. Harry, now, due to someone else's mistake, you are forced to compete in this tournament. It is a legally binding contract, the basis of it is that as long as the competitor is not bedridden or dead, he must compete or his magical core will overload and kill him." The headmaster said. As he said this, Professors McGonagall, Moody, and Snape rushed into the room.  
"Harry, how did you enter yourself into this tournament?" McGonagall asked in a shocked tone.  
"I didn't, see I—" I started, but I was cut off.  
"How then, Potter, did your name come out of that goblet? Did you perhaps, bribe another student to enter yourself in?"  
"Severus, how dare you insult one of my students in such a manner?" She replied.  
"Yes, Severus. I must agree with Minerva on that matter." Dumbledore said,  
"Fine. How many other ways are there to pass an age line then?" Snape retorted,  
"Severus, that is enough. I will not tolerate such juvenile behavior from a teacher." Dumbledore said, he was obviously getting mad, or just annoyed, at the potions master, and that was when Moody decided to interject.  
"Whoever did this to you, Potter, was very clever. Age lines are finicky things, plus, with the very strong magic on the Goblet of Fire, one would be hard pressed to enter you as a second champion from the same school."

"If I may sirs…" Ollivander started, "We have yet to do the weighing of the wands, and it getting near curfew, so if we may…"  
"Ah, thank you, Mr. Ollivander. The Weighing of the Wands is a traditional part of the Triwizard tournament. All you have to do is hand yours to Ollivander here and he will weigh them and give them a quick test before handing them back. Now who will be going first?"

-BREAK—

The Weighing of the Wands was simple, just as Dumbledore described it. I was shocked at how long it took to measure a wand and shoot sparks out of it four times. After it was done, I returned to the common room and saw that it was empty, so I didn't bother staying there. Instead, I went straight to the dorm, where I saw Ron sitting on his bed, hunched forward, deep in thought.

"How did you do it, Harry?" Ron asked in a bitter tone.  
"Do what? What do you mean?"  
"You know very well what I mean, Potter. How in Merlin's name did you put your name in that cup?"  
"Listen Ron, I didn't. You know that as well as I do. You saw me try to put Fred and George's names in there. That was my best idea, and it didn't work." I replied angrily.  
"No, you listen. I've had nothing my whole life: no money, no way of getting by after school, hell, I can't even spend the holidays at home much anymore."  
"You don't get it, do you?" I replied, getting more and more frustrated at my "friend" by the moment, "The way I see it, you've got everything that I don't… Everything I've ever wanted."  
"And what would that be?"  
"A family! One that cares about your well-being, anyway! Sirius is different somehow. I know that if it wasn't for Voldemort, then we wouldn't be having this conversation now, would we?" I said, and walked back out of the dorm and into the common room. I knew that I shouldn't have acted so harshly towards Ron. But what's done is done. I slowly fell asleep where I lay on one of the many couches that scattered the room.

I awoke the next morning to a very concerned looking Hermione staring at me where she was crouched in front of the sofa.

"About time you woke up. I want to talk to you about a few things."  
"Sure, what?" I asked, still groggy, but awake enough to where I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I motioned her to sit down next to me where I awoke  
"About last night. First off, how did you manage to put your name in the Goblet? And this morning, I couldn't get Ron to say a word about you at all."  
"I think Ron's just jealous. And I didn't put my name in that cup for the hundredth time. I know that this whole thing worries you so much, but, knowing you, you know that I have to do this for as long as I'm alive. I didn't ask for any of this, but it happened anyway. Just promise me one thing." After I said this, she laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped her arms around my neck.  
"Anything," she said with a sob.  
"Don't worry about me, please. I'll be just fine." I returned her hug as she laid there on the crook of my neck for a few minutes longer. Slowly, she sat up and stared at me for a few moments. At that point, instinct took over as I leaned my head closer and closer to hers until at last we kissed.

It was slow at first, but the pace quickened fast. We finally stopped after a long time; not by choice, but for a lack of fresh air.

"Well… that was… that was something." I said as I put my arm around her, "So, where does that leave us?"  
"I don't really know, but I'm sure we can figure it out." Hermione replied. I chuckled as we kissed again. Suddenly, it crossed my mind how beautiful Hermione actually was. To the rest of the school, she was an obsessed bookworm that somehow managed to befriend Harry Potter; but to me, she is everything I could ask for in a friend or, more than that now.

After a short pause, I asked, "We should probably get ready for breakfast now, right?"  
"You mean lunch. I convinced Dumbledore to give us the day off of classes to help you recover from this whole episode."  
"What you mean us? Who would have thought Hermione Granger would willingly give up classes for a day to spend time with just one person? I must be that special or something." I said with a mischievous grin.  
"Oh come off it, you. But I suppose you are right," She said with a sigh, "Come on, let's get some food, I'm starving. I could eat as much as Ron normally does right now."

We shared a small laugh for a moment before doing just that, walking hand in hand the whole way there.

I had a strange feeling deep in the back of my head that things were going to get a lot worse from here, but then again, it could just be my imagination. After all, I finally kissed Hermione. Something that I felt was very much overdue. But right now, nothing could be better.

-END CHAPTER—

So, what did you think? My original idea was letting it happen just before the first task in the tent, but I figured it would be too cliché, so I tried something new, and I think I pulled it off halfway decent. Note I'm not any good at writing all these mushy scenes, so forgive me if something seems choppy or just downright bad.

Until next time folks!


	35. Dragons, BLAM!

Hey guys, it's little old me again! If this doesn't get posted in for a while, it's because I was swamped by school and I'm going to Disney at the end of the month! For reference, I started writing this on May 1st.

Also, a few more things:

1) Happy Potter Day! (May 2nd, the day specified in the Deathly Hallows book that Harry killed Voldemort.  
2) Chapter name is all but copyrighted by Mike from the podcast called the Mana Pool, one about Magic, a third of the worlds mentioned in this story (albeit a nearly nonexistent one save for Mr. the Mind Sculptor there)  
3) This chapter celebrates the one year anniversary of me writing this story, so YAAY!

-START CHAPTER—

To no one's surprise, Victor Krum started watching Quidditch practices of all of the houses after the initial tryouts. He was especially interested in our team, as he had taken to flying on his broom several meters above everyone else to get a better view of the session. It was after one of these practices that he wanted to ask Katie, who was the new captain after Oliver's graduation.

"Captain!" He called as we all landed on the ground nearly simultaneously.  
"That would be me, sir," Katie Bell answered,  
"I know that this might sound a bit odd… but I think I can help improve your strategy." He replied in his thick Bulgarian accent. Instantly, all eyes went to Katie as she replied,  
"I would appreciate it. I'll get you a schedule of our practices as soon as I can." I personally, was surprised at his request but I was eagerly ready to accept it immediately. After all, what self-respecting sports team would deny the coaching from a big-time professional player? His eyes fluttered to Riley and they made eye contact for a long time. Eventually, she blushed and looked away. Shortly afterwards, he gave a quick bow and walked away.

"Alright guys, good practice today. And don't tell anyone about his coaching unless he does first, I don't want word of it spreading too quickly." Katie said after the professional athlete had walked out of earshot.

We went back into the changing rooms to take showers and put away the equipment. Afterwards, I decided to have a bit of fun with Riley.

"Riley!" I called as I caught up to her,  
"Yes?" She asked,  
"Was it just me, or was Victor Krum checking you out back there?"  
She gave me a quick punch to the arm and said "Oh come on, I heard what happened between you and Hermione, don't try to make fun of me for the same thing."  
"So you admit it?" I asked  
"Do not! Now tell me… What was it like snogging my sister?" She replied while blinking several times with a puppy-like expression on her face,  
"Oh, trying to turn this one on me, are you? Well, to answer your question, it was great, but don't tell Ron about Krum, he might get jealous," One more punch to the arm later I said "I meant about the practicing! I don't know why he wasn't there in the first place, but he might freak out on you if you tell him that."  
"Fine. I won't tell him in front of you." She said,  
"Seriously, I can't catch a break with you, can i?" I asked.  
"Nope."  
"Hey, Hermione told you about… us, so, who exactly did you tell this piece of information with?"  
"Oh, nobody much, just Fred and George."  
"Oh, great. They probably told half the school, or at least all of Gryffindor."  
"Whoops. Must have slipped my mind." She replied casually as I gave her a stern look.

When we eventually got back to the Gryffindor Common Room, we found Hermione standing in front of Ron, they were shouting at each other about an unknown topic at first, but as we stood by listening, it was obvious they were arguing about me being in the Tournament. After he left, I walked over to her, grabbed hold of her hand gently, and asked her what was wrong.

"He won't listen to anything I say. I tried talking some sense into him, but I can't convince him that you didn't enter yourself in. I asked him how it was possible for you to pass an ageline, but he argued back… oh, I can't even remember what he said, but I know it made absolutely no sense whatsoever."  
"Don't worry about it, I'll try to talk to him later, maybe if we tell him that Krum wants to coach the Quidditch team might get him to talk to me."  
"Wait… Krum what? Really?" She asked incredulously,  
"Yep. He offered to help coach the team. I don't know why, but he did." Riley interjected,  
"You know perfectly well why, he wanted to get to know you better." I said, to which she blushed a scarlet red, "So you do like him, don't you?"  
"I… whatever Potter, have fun with my sister, but not too much." She said before walking out of the common room. She had an amused look about her as she finished her sentence.  
"Well, that was interesting." I said,  
"She just wanted to give us some time to talk."  
"I doubt she thinks we're going to talk the whole time."  
"Good point." My girlfriend replied with a grin as we leaned into each other for a kiss.

-BREAK—

The next day, a Monday, while eating breakfast in the Great Hall. This year, I signed up for Ancient Runes, Jace's class, instead of Divination as my elective. Hermione, who had done every single subject last year and she claimed that it was one of the more interesting ones.

"Hey Harry, how was last night?" Fred asked as he casually glanced over his timetable.  
"Why? What do you mean?" I asked. He then looked from me to Hermione several times in a very obvious fashion. "Ah, that. Just don't go out of your way to tell anybody. I really don't want the press to get a hold of that."  
"Don't you think that it's a bad idea to trust me or George with that?"  
"Yeah, but it's too late and the only way I can stop it from rampaging all over the head pages of British magical newspapers. Thanks Riley," I added as an afterthought. She pretended to look offended, but reclaimed a normal face and went back to her breakfast. It was then that I noticed that Ron was sitting several seats away from our group. After an older Gryffindor student whispered something in his ear, he looked nervous for several moments before walking over to where Riley sat and relayed her message, presumably. It turns out I was right.

"Harry, Ron said that Hagrid's looking for you; Go out to his hut after nightfall, and bring your cloak."  
"Alright. If you can get him to pay attention to you for more than five seconds, tell him thanks. I know I won't be able to for a long time." I replied.  
"No problem." She said as she walked around to her seat and resumed her meal.

We finished eating quickly and rushed off to our classes. Ron and Riley were forced to sit with each other for lack of better seating arrangements, and she looked annoyed at her current predicament. I saw Hermione suppress a giggle as we sat down at our desk in the Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall looked very happy as welcomed us and launched into a lecture about the safe uses of a stunning spell, one that we had learned late last year.

This and all the other classes were uneventful except for Ancient Runes, which we all thought was quite interesting, even Ron seemed cheered up by it, who had been gloomy since Halloween.

-BREAK—

"To some of you, this class may be as boring as waiting for grass to grow, for others, as fascinating as theory of magic. To all of you, it will be a major study point from now until next May. As you know, Ancient Runes were in use long before Arabic writing became common use in Europe. It was used by all forms of wizards and even higher classes of muggles. Today, they serve as a gateway into ancient society and history of Magical England as far back as the time before the founders." Was the way that Jace chose to introduce his class. The room was a deep blue, with strange, eerie lights glowing from the walls that flickered between various shades of blue. Our lesson for the day was to translate various simple runes from the matching pairs from our textbooks as a warmup exercise to start out the year. I had a feeling that he wanted to make sure that we knew what we were doing before we got into the deep stuff, but I could be wrong.

All in all, the class is shaping up to be the best of the year, but that was before I got to see Moody teach his class.

That night, I grabbed my invisibility cloak and crept down to out of the castle to meet Hagrid at his hut. A few moments after I knocked, he opened the door as I flung the garment off of me so that he could see who he was looking to.

"'ello 'arry, how've ya been? Follow me quickly now, someone else is going to be coming. Put yer cloak back on." He said before leading me out into the forest. Shortly afterwards, we were joined by Madame Maxine, the headmistress for Beaubatons. They talked while walking slowly into the forest. I was unsure of what they were discussing, I was too far away and too nice of a guy to leave them to their conversation. After a while of walking, there were dozens of men running around four extremely large cages. They were covered in a tough coating that had fire spewing from the edges every few moments. They were obviously trying to detain whatever was in them.

Just as I spotted Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang, I figured out what it was. One of the cages got it's covering thrown off, and inside was a dragon.


	36. Ron Troubles

As the first of the dragons were revealed, I couldn't help but think that I was going to be in for one hell of a ride during the first task. It obviously meant that we had to fight one such beast to complete the task, but the details of which I couldn't be sure of. Madame Maxime was with Hagrid representing Beaubatons, and Karkarof was representing Durmstrang a ways off, spying on the sight in order to inform his champion. The fact that I am here as well means that the only champion not to know about the task would be Cedric. I felt that I had to let him in on the secret because of what Hermione has called my "saving people thing," for whatever reason… After a few more moments of watching the angered beasts, I quietly made my way back to the castle without disturbing either party.

The next morning, I met Hermione in the common room, and after a not-so-quick good morning kiss, told her about the dragons. Naturally, she freaked out about the prospect of me fighting a dragon.

"Honestly, Harry, how could they expect a fourteen year old kid to fight a fully grown dragon? I mean, doesn't that seem a bit dangerous? Isn't the department of Magical Games and Sports supposed to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen?" She said in a storm,  
"I don't think they designed this tournament with a fourteen year old kid in mind, do you?" I replied, she smiled and said "No, I guess not." She let out a sigh and continued, "Damn it Harry, why do you have to be right all the time, I thought that was my job!"  
"No, you job is to be right in all things concerning our classes. My job is to make sure none of us gets killed every year and to always be right in things concerning everything else."  
"How many times have I said that I love the way you do that?"  
"Do what? What did I do this time?" I asked incredulously,  
"Calm me down whenever I get too riled up."  
"Oh, that… yeah, that's been another one of my jobs."  
"How many jobs do you have?"  
"However many it takes to keep my friends, and more importantly you, safe." She blushed as we kissed again. As we broke apart, she asked, "What did I do to deserve you?"  
"What did you do? I thought that one was all on me? Or am I mistaken?" After a short laugh, she replied "See what I mean? Serious when you need to be, funny the rest of the time."  
"Yeah, that's me in a nutshell. Come on, lets go down to the Great Hall and get some breakfast, I'm starving."  
"Good idea." Hermione replied.

-BREAK (and a Point of View change, so be prepared)-

On one flight of stairs was standing Rita Skeeter, head reporter of the Triwizard Tournament of 1995, naysayer of whoever got on her bad side, downright vindictive when neither apply. She had just finished her morning meal, and with the first task soon approaching, she wanted to write a piece on the excitement of the castles residents. The one person she really wanted to talk to, however, was never available when she was; but it was this morning when she found her prey.

Harry Potter was walking down the Grand Staircase with his one truly inseperable friend, Hermione Granger. According to school rumors, the two had been in such a state since the day they were born. Those two knew each other nearly as well as the girl knew her twin sister. The head reporter knew that this was her chance. The Potter boy was never without at least three or four of his closest friends, although another rumor was running about saying that the youngest Weasley boy was too jealous of him to even be on speaking terms.

"Ah, Harry Potter, just the man I wanted to see. Might I ask you a few questions for the Prophet?" The woman asked.  
"Sure, and you might be Rita Skeeter?"  
"Yes, that would be me." The woman replied,  
"Ah. I'm a personal fan of your writings. This is my uhh…" the boy looked over his shoulder to the girls eager nod as he continued, "this is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger. Ask any questions you'd like, as long as they're not too personal; provided you can keep up with me."  
"Thank you Harry…"

And the meeting lasted unfortunately, for several hours and over two meals, through which the girl fetched the other two food from the kitchens. Few knew the secret of the location of one such room, but the Gryffindor Six, or five as it were, were the main resources of this bit of information. Much to the writers dismay, the boy refused to tell her where exactly the rooms were. The whole unlikely alliance thought the interview was wonderful and no one questioned Harry Potter and Hermione Granger's absence from classes that day with the one exception of Minerva McGonagall.

-BREAK (And back to first person once again)—

The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Rita Skeeters article was on the front page of the Daily Prophet. What was more surprising was that she had actually quoted me properly and wrote about what we discussed in a favorable way.

"Hermione, look at this," I said, handing her the newspaper.  
"What is it—oh, right… that." She replied.  
"No, don't worry, it was actually really good."  
"Seriously?" She asked incredulously,  
"Seriously," I repeated.  
"I don't believe you, she's never been nice in a single one of her articles." She started reading the paper as I continued with my breakfast; after a while, she paused and looked at me with a scarlet red face and asked, "Did she really write about us?"  
"Don't blame me for that one, it was your idea to tell her and you know how reporters are."  
"Alright, but now we're going to have to deal with the rest of the castle minus Slytherin cheering at us everywhere we go."  
I let out a sigh at that realization and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, but it's a necessary evil. They would have found out soon enough anyway without Skeeter's help."

Later that morning, I tried to talk to Ron, who was as rude as before…

"Ron, talk to me already, it's been a month and you haven't spoken to me, Hermione, Riley, or even your own siblings."  
"Shove off Harry, I know, I know. But… damn it all, I just can't seem to get the respect while being around you so much, you know" He said before speeding up to get away from me,  
"Yeah, I know, and that's the problem, you've always been in your older brothers' shadow, and even mine for a long time. Don't you know how hard it is to deal with all the publicity I'm getting because of this stupid tournament? It's ridiculous!" I replied,  
"Don't try to lie to me like that. I saw the front page of the Prophet this morning, damn near everyone did. You know, I thought you had me convinced for a few days there, but then you go and give a huge interview to Skeeter and miss a whole day of classes along with it. I've been pushing myself away from you for a long time now, I know that, and do you know how hard it is to talk to Riley these days? I think that… no, I don't know that yet. Harry, it's been nice talking to you, don't you think you should go back to your friends now?"  
"My friends? Don't you mean our friends?"  
"No, sorry." Ron said before turning a quick corner that did not lead to the Ancient Runes classroom.

-BREAK—

That afternoon, I did manage to talk to Cedric alone…

"Cedric, listen, I need to talk with you for a minute, alone, it's about the first task." It was just after the last period of the day, and no doubt he was ready to return to the Hufflepuff common room.  
He hesitated for a moment before replying, "Sure, come on, I know a good spot that we won't be overheard in."

He turned around and made for the seventh floor, which was not too much higher up from where we were located when we bumped into each other. He then paced back and forth a certain spot in front of a bare patch of wall next to the portrait of Barnabus the Barmy, one that I had been well acquainted with, and had even had a few pleasant conversations with before. After he finished walking, a door appeared where the wall used to be.

"Wicked…" I said under my breath,  
"Yeah, it is. They call it the Room of Requirement. It can be whatever you need it to be, just concentrate on it and walk back and forth that section of wall three times and the door will appear." He opened the door and walked inside. In the room, there was just one small table accompanied by two chairs and a stunning window view of the landscape surrounding Hogwarts. I took a seat across from him and he started, "So, what was it you wanted to tell me?"  
"I figured out what the first task is. Dragons."  
"Wait, what?"  
"You heard me right, we're going to have to battle a dragon. I don't know the details, but that's what I figured out from the four dragon cages in the Forest. Madame Maxine and Igor Karkaroff were there too, so I figured you were the only one not to know about it."  
After a moment, he replied, "Thanks Harry, I guess I owe you one. Looks like we're going to have to start training."  
"Looks like it," I said before walking out of the room.

Upon arrival at the Gryffindor Common room, I couldn't help but feel happy about what I just did.

"Let me guess, your saving people thing is acting up again?" Hermione said as she shut the book she was reading on one of the sofas and walked up to where I was standing just inside the portrait hole and greeted me with a kiss.  
"Yeah. That would be it."  
"I saw you trying to talk to Ron this morning, how did that go?"  
"Honestly?" I asked, "It went terrible. He showed up late to Ancient Runes, probably blowing off some steam."  
"Most likely." She said.

Just then, Riley walked through the portrait hole and literally bumped into me not paying attention. "Oh, sorry about that Harry, I was just… thinking."  
"About what? Quidditch practice tomorrow? I know you're just dying to meet Victor again."  
"Stuff it Harry, or do you not want this here scroll?" She said, "Moody told me to give this to you after class earlier. Never got the chance, so… here."  
"And that," I said, unrolling the parchment, "Would be our dearest paranoid Professor Moody. Says here he wants to see me in his office as soon as possible. Thanks Riley. Hermione, I'll see you later, right? I'm sure you'll still be studying when I get back."  
"You'd bet you will, bye, see you later," She said as we shared a quick kiss and I quickly walked out of the common room to see what was the matter with the near-insane professor.

Upon arrival at his office, I was required to state my name and business before he even opened the door to prove my claims right or wrong.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, nice of you to come so soon. Wasn't expectin' ya today." He said with his heavy American accent.  
"Yes, I was given this here, said you wanted to see me." I replied,  
"And I'd guess it did. Come in, there's somethin' I need to ask ya'." We walked into his cluttered office as he took his seat. I took the one on the other side of his desk as he continued, "What are you good at boy?"  
"What do you mean?" I asked,  
"Well, is there any one thing that you can do better than anyone else you know?"  
"I can fly, I'd say I'm rather good at that."  
"Excellent. You can use that to your advantage in the first task."  
"But I'm not allowed a broom, am i?" I asked,  
"No, but you are allowed a wand."  
"So… what are you suggesting?"  
"Potter, have you ever heard of a summoning charm? Can you perform it?"  
"Heard of it, yes. Can't cast it though…"  
"I was afraid of that. How about this: Why don't you let your little girlfriend teach you the spell before you go up against that dragon. She's the studious type, and I'm sure she knows it already."  
"Most likely. Thank you professor." I said as I got up to return to my dorm.  
"No, thank you for your time. And you'd better get me that egg." He then hurried me out of his office without further explanation.

What could he have meant by egg? Upon arrival at the common room, I expressed this concern with the four of my closest friends not named Ron, who were also stumped for a moment before Hermione offered: "Perhaps you'd have to retrieve the egg from the dragon."  
"Genius, that has to be it. Thanks Hermione, you're the best." I said,  
"Yeah… I get that a lot." She replied with a round of laughs coming from the five of us, but mostly from me and Riley, who knew exactly what she was talking about. Riley and the Weasley twins cleared out to either sleep or plot pranks, respectively, I expressed my desire to learn the summoning charm, at which her whole face lit up with delight. Needless to say, I had the spell mastered in due time for the first task.


	37. Lights!

A/N: Sorry about this *somewhat* emotional start to the chapter, but I think it's unfortunately necessary, considering Ginny's character and all. Anyway, I hope you all like it!

-START CHAPTER-

On the afternoon that Rita Skeeter wrote her amazingly positive article about one Harry Potter, a young Ginny Weasley, whom had been quite taken by the Potter lad, had been extremely let down when she read about his involvement with the attractive Hermione Granger. She was heartbroken, to say the least. After crying in her bed for several hours, she decided she would make her move.

-BREAK—

That afternoon, after classes, I was on my way up to the Gryffindor common room hand-in-hand with Hermione. We had an interesting day; one filled with peeping Tom whistles and thunderous applause wherever we went. Hermione had a tough time of it, not having been in the limelight nearly as much as I had. I told her to shrug it off like it was nothing like I always did. It appeared to work to a certain extent. When we got up to the common room, she left for a few minutes to sort out her work and return her textbooks to their place in her trunk.

"Harry?" A soft voice asked from behind me,  
"Who's there?" I asked, looking around as my paranoid Jedi brains instructed me to.  
"Don't you remember me? Fred and George's… and Ron's little sister?" The feminine voice repled,  
"Ginny? Where are you? Come out, I can't see you from behind the sofa." At this, she stood up to where she was directly behind me.  
"Wow, Ron wasn't joking, you are good at that." She said as she slid onto my lap,  
"Whoa, what are you doing?" I asked, shocked at what the younger girl did,  
"What I should have done a long time ago." She whispered right before she pressed her face against mine. She obviously attempted to curry my favor by this action. I couldn't say I didn't enjoy it while it lasted, but I ended it the first opporotunity I got.  
"Ginny! What the hell was that?" I said as I stood up, reluctantly, but roughly knocking her off of my lap.  
"Come on, you seriously don't think you're going to stay with her, do you?"  
"Yes, I do. Sorry to disappoint you." I replied,  
"Are you sure you don't—"  
"Yes, I'm sure. I-I think I'm in love with her Ginny, I can't just leave her for you when we've known each other for so long, you know?"  
She paused for a moment before saying "Fine. I hope you realize what you just did." Without another word, she took off for the girls dorms, where she had run into Hermione at the bottom step.  
"Aw crap. How much of that did you see?" I asked, still upset about the whole ordeal.  
"Enough of it to where I understood the circumstances." Hermione replied simply,  
"I'm so sorry about that, I didn't think that she would try something like that. I mean—" I didn't have time to finish but for Hermione's silent lips crashing onto my rambling ones.  
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault. I was actually rather impressed the way you handled that; her reaction was a given. And did you really mean that you… you…"  
"Yes, I did. I love you Hermione Granger." I said to stop her from rambling,  
"I-I really don't know what to say, I mean—"  
"Say you love me back." I replied, our faces barely inches away from each other as we wrapped our arms about the other tightly,  
"I love you too Harry Potter."

There was nothing left to say at this point, as our actions took over for the next several minutes.

-BREAK—

It was finally here. The day of the first task. The day I would have to fight a dragon as a means to an end. I was worried sick last night; but not for me. I was worried about Hermione and Ginny, who I was sure had cried their eyes out with worry last night. As ironic as it sounds, I barely got any sleep thinking about them not getting any sleep. I got up and checked the time. It was half past six. Nobody in the castle would be awake. It felt like a perfect time to go to the common room and stare at the fire, as I had taken to doing when I needed to think.

Upon arriving in the large room, I found Hermione doing the same thing that I had intended to do. Silently, I slid onto the seat beside her and placed my arm around her shoulder. She wordlessly placed her head on mine and draped her arms around me.

"Harry i-I'm so worried about what might happen to you today. I don't want you to get hurt."  
"I knew you would be. And you probably know I'm going to tell you that there's nothing to worry about. In fact, last night I was too busy worrying about you worrying about me that I couldn't get any sleep. Remember when I went on that mission with Obi-Wan before our third year started?" When she nodded her head, I continued, "And I was stupid enough to get my arm cut off? And how I survived that with minimal damage to the rest of myself other than having to wear this glove to hide it?"  
"Yes, I remember it all. In fact, I even remember myself fainting when I figured out what happened to you." We shared a laugh at this as I continued,  
"We both know you have nothing to worry about. Thanks to you, I was able to master the summoning charm six months before the rest of our year did, and I know exactly what I'm going to use it for. Ah, speaking of that, would you do me a huge favor?"  
"Anything," She replied,  
"Great. I need you to take my broom and place it around the arena somewhere nobody will find it."  
When I said this, her eyes lit up with excitement "You really think you can fight a dragon on a broom?"  
"Yeah, why not? I've got all kinds of long range spells plus my lightsaber when all else fails."  
"About that… how many people know about you're special training?"  
"Only you, Riley, Ron, and Fred and George, plus anyone else you five might have told."  
"So, did anybody figure out what it was based on you using it against that bludger Second Year?"  
"No, I don't think so. I've heard all kinds of rumors from some of the other guys I know, none of them were even close to being related to the truth."  
"Well that's good… I guess."  
"Yeah. Come on, let's go get something to eat, I'm starving.

-BREAK—

After a quick breakfast in the kitchens and a meeting with Professor Dumbledore, we were on our way to the Quidditch Pitch, which had been repurposed immediately after our first game of the season against Hufflepuff, to stage a dragon fight (or four of them, to be exact). Although none of us were supposed to know about it, all four champions and their closes friends did. Dumbledore said that we were allowed two guests in the Champion's tent; so I brought Hermione along and whoever else might come along to visit me before my go at the dragon was welcome to stay.

One by one, the other three champions filed into the tent slowly. First was Cedric Diggory, who gave me an appreciative nod before continuing. Second was Fleur Delacour with who appeared to be her little sister trailing behind. And last to arrive was Victor Krum, and on his arm was… Riley?

"What is she doing here?" I asked Hermione after waving to her twin.  
"I don't know, and since when is she… dating Victor Krum?"  
"No idea. I think we might have to talk to her about it later." I said as I got a maniacal grin on my face as I continued, "And I'd bet we could make some really good fun out of her for a few days." This stroke of genius rewarded me a casual punch to my arm and a smile after a momentary stern glance from Hermione.

After a while, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, one Bartemus Crouch, walked into the tent with a small brown bag in his hands. I gave a quick look to Hermione as I handed her my shrunken Firebolt. She walked out of the tent quickly to find a decent spot around the filled Quidditch Pitch to enlarge it for me to summon during the task.

"Hello champions, as you know, I am Bartemus Crouch, Head of the Department of Magical Games of Sports. I will be supervising your battle against a dragon today. Yes: the first task of this tournament will be to face off against a dragon to acquire one golden egg. In this bag I have four miniature dragons, one for each life size dragon we have obtained. Each of you will pull one out of this bag, the one you pull here will be the one that you will fight out there. Miss Delacour, you may select first."

She pulled out a small, green looking dragon. "Ah, the Welsh Greenback."  
Victor Krum was next, who selected a Chinese Ridgeback.  
Cedric pulled next, which was a Norwegian Snatchhead,  
Mine was a Hungarian Horntail. It was a nasty, vicious dragon. It was dark brown, nearly black, with hundreds of horns on it. It looked real mean, and it was only a miniature.

-BREAK—

It had been two long, agonizing hours, during which I had a talk with Riley about her and Victor. She had obviously been somewhat dating him for a few weeks now, and had wanted to keep it a secret until today, when it had been necessary. Finally, my time had come around. I was going up against a dragon to collect a golden egg from it. Sounded easy enough, right? As it turned out, it wasn't.

As I walked out of the tent and onto the former Quidditch Pitch, which now had hundreds of large boulders scattered around it and a rocky face. The Horntail was standing on the other side, and it was much, much scarier in life-size. As intimidating as it looked, I was already formulating a plan.

It had chains around its neck to serve as a makeshift collar, no doubt magically strengthened, and it was sitting on a nest that had just one more golden egg left in it for me. The question was, how do I lure it away from the nest long enough for me to grab an egg. That was it.

"Accio Firebolt," I called with a flick of my wand. My broom came racing towards me just as the dragon attempted to fly over the field to where I was. I grabbed my broom just as the Horntail shot a jet of fire out of its mouth to my general direction. It missed by several meters, but I was impressed at how long its range was. Next, i pulled out my lightsaber and hacked one of the larger boulders to shreds while avoiding the claws and firey breath of the dragon. After this was finished, I used the force to pick up the resulting rubble and used it as a shield, encasing me in a bubble of solid rock. Slowly, I made my way to the nest; the dragon, not one to be left behind by any means, followed me. When I felt that I was close enough to make a dash for the egg, I hurled the rocks right at the dragon and flew at top speed. I reached down and plucked the oblong gold nugget from its place among the twigs that surrounded it just as the dragon broke free of its chains and took after me.

I knew I had to get it away from the crowds as quickly as possible, so I went straight up and away as soon as I was high enough. The chase that ensued was very fast paced and took many turns and dives around the school property. Before long, the dragon-tamers that were in charge of the Horntails welfare mounted their brooms and took off after the pair of us. They started sending several incomprehensible spells at the dragon that I was sure had been invented for the sole purpose of calming down such rowdy beasts as a dragon. After about ten minutes of this, enough spells hit the Horntail that it was knocked unconscious and toppled to the ground. Now that I had a window to attack, I felt it necessary to ensure that it was dead, or at least incapable of hurting anyone. Whenever I got there, sure enough, it was down for the count. All of the dragon tamers thanked me one by one for keeping it in the air long enough for allowing them to take it down. One of these was Charlie Weasley, the oldest of the Weasley children.

"Sorry about that Harry. I hope by little brothers haven't given you too much trouble."  
"Only enough to where it keeps me sane. They've been great friends, don't worry about them."  
"Alright, good to know," Charlie replied, no doubt he was talking about Fred and George.

-BREAK—

Immediately following the event at the dragon crash site, inside of the Gryffindor Common Room, I had been awarded first place for creativity in the face of a challenge and selflessly putting myself in danger for the sake of others. Of course, I thought nothing of it, but in the heat of the moment, but now, when the whole Gryffindor house was celebrating with lots of cheers and rounds of butterbeer courtesy of the twins, who had just lifted me up on their shoulders for all to see.

After I had raised my free hand to motion for silence, I asked "Who wants me to open it?" The room once again erupted into cheers as I twisted the solid gold handle on the egg. As soon as I did so, the egg uttered a loud, incomprehensible scream that made Fred and George drop me. I tumbled to the ground while trying to close the egg, which was none too pleasant an experience. After I had it closed, I stood up and shrugged my shoulders.

"I think I'm going to have to crack the case on this egg." I said mostly to myself.  
"Not so fast. You seriously don't think you're going to do that alone. It's obviously a clue to what the second task is."  
"Yep. Dumbledore told me that after I got back to the arena." I replied.  
"So, winning the task hasn't improved your ego, has it?" I heard a voice ask from behind me, it was Ron, and he was obviously still angry at me.  
"Ron, what are you talking about?"  
"I saw what you did? You were practically begging them to let you open it." Ron said. Despite all the noise in the room and a great many butterbeers being consumed, half of the room still had time to bellow out loud, half-drunken boos at him.  
"I don't think they liked that too much." Hermione said. Ron was now practically fuming at that remark.  
"Fine. If that's how you want to be, so be it." And with that, one extremely angry Ronald Weasley stormed out of the room.  
"I don't think he's taking it too well." I remarked casually,  
"No, not at all. He's just being unreasonable now."  
"I could get Fred and George to talk to him, that might work…"


	38. Weasley Interlude

Hey all! Guess what? This Memorial Day weekend here in America, I spent a good chunk of my time writing these two chapters for you guys! Hopefully it will be appreciated as I might not get any more done during the next month between my vacation at Disney World and summer camp with Scouts.

-START CHAPTER—

It was the day after the first task of the 1995 Triwizard Tournament, and Ron Weasley was sitting on a sofa contemplating his actions over the past two months. First, he had gotten extremely angry at his best friend for no apparent reason other than petty jealousy. Then, he had slowly separated from his siblings, and, unwittingly, the one girl that he realized that he really liked soon after. And every time any of these people tried to talk to him, he threw a fit and stormed away angry. He spent much time engaged in this, and it was when he was doing so when the girl of his dreams walked in.

"Hey Ron, what's up? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Riley Granger asked as she took a seat next to him.  
"Nothing much. Just thinking." Ron replied as he looked over to his right to see her sit down.  
"That's always good. So, I'll bet you know what I want to talk about, right?"  
"Yeah…" Ron said as he let out a sigh. "I know. It's just… I don't really know why I've done any of those things really… but, i… i… it just… it's distracted me too much and I've been secluding myself from everyone from far too long and… i…"  
"You've what? Spit it out already."  
"I think I'm in love…" Ron replied dreamily  
"Aww, who's the lucky girl? I'll bet Fred and George could smuggle you in a love potion from Hogsmeade if you wanted."  
"No, she's already dating… I've known her for too long to try and steal her away from him, and I just want to wish them the best at it…"  
"Ron, you… you can't be talking about… me, are you?"  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to happen it just… I thought I might have asked you out soon if it weren't for my stupid seclusion and Krum coaching the Quidditch team. I know it would have worked out differently under other circumstances, but given these, I think I'll just leave you two be."  
"No, Ron, don't be sorry, we can't control these things. I mean, we can still be friends, right? Or would that tempt you too much?"  
"I'd like that as long as I can keep it in check."  
"And look at us… Two of the goofiest kids in school, getting all sappy over teenage drama, just like that!" Riley said with a snap of her fingers.  
"Yeah. I guess you're right. It's nothing. But if he ever does anything to hurt you, my inner fanboy won't stop me from making him regret it." Ron said as he got up and walked out of the Gryffindor Common Room without another word.

-BREAK—

To say the least, Ginny Weasley was not having a good week. First, she finally got up the courage to talk to the one person she'd been in love with as long as she could remember. And when she did, it was already too late, as he had been dating Hermione Granger for quite some time. He had told her off like it was nothing, using her full charm, as she thought of it. He had said he was in love with someone else, right in front of her. To say the least, her heart was broken, and she'd spent the rest of that weekend and most of her free time crying onto her pillow over it. Eventually though, she had calmed down enough to try and talk to George about it. He seemed to know more about relationship troubles than Fred, Ron was a total mess at that moment, and Percy had just graduated two years ago to work for one Bartemus Crouch as a personal assistant. Ginny didn't know who this person was, although she had seen him about the school a few times to oversee the tournament.

"Fred, can we talk for a minute?" Ginny asked nervously.  
"Sure. About what sis'?"  
"Well… it's about Harry."  
"Ok, uhh… what did he do this time? Was it anything too bad? You know, he's getting almost as bad as I am, and that's saying something."  
"Does after forcing his three best friends' little sister off of him and telling her that he's in love with someone else count? If not, then he's just fine."  
"Oh. Didn't realize you had it that bad. There's not much I can say about that. I mean, him and Hermione have just been waiting for that special time for two years now. I really want the both of them to be happy, and for now, I know this isn't the answer you wanted, but if you do want your chance with him, you'll have to wait until Hermione dies, because those two aren't being separated any other way."  
"I figured you would say something like that, but I think it still makes me feel a little better. Not sure if I can distract myself from him long enough to want to try that again, but I'll have to try." Ginny said, letting one tear escape from the corner of her left eye.  
"Don't worry about it Ginny, I know you'll move on. And hey, maybe you'll find somebody else some day. I know I've had to do that far too many times for it to be good for me." Her older brother said as she cracked a small smile at his remark.  
"Thanks. Despite your thick headedness and poor sense of humor, you always make me feel better when I need you too." Ginny replied. For once, she actually felt fine concerning a certain boy named Harry Potter.

-BREAK—

Ron Weasley was having a good day. First, he had finally gotten off his chest his feelings for Riley, who promised to tell him if something was amiss. Then he had decided to have a talk with Harry, who took his apology very greatfully…

*FLASHBACK*

"_Harry, we need to talk." Ron said that evening during dinner.  
"Alright, what about?" He asked back.  
"Well, I just wanted to apologize for the things I've said and done over the past few months. I know I've been a total jerk to you about this whole tournament thing, and after this is all said and done, I hope we can be friends again." Ron replied as he held out his hand.  
"Done. Apology accepted, just, go easy on the freaking out next time." Harry said as he took it. They shared a laugh before going back to being the great friends they were before…_

*END FLASHBACK*

And he had even gotten to talk with Victor Krum about the Gryffindor Quidditch team for this year, which turned out to be a real blast. Overall, he had a very good day.

-BREAK—

Ron's little sister, on the other hand, was having a terrible day. Every time she recalled that day she advanced on her crush practically from birth, she had been rejected; albeit peacefully and carefully, but rejected anyway. And this crushed her spirits into splinters. She had spent most of that day, thankfully a Saturday, crying her eyes out on her bed, which had become her favorite place to think in the past months. She had, unwittingly, made it the one place where she thought of him the most, and this upset her all the more. When she left the dorm to gather her wits elsewhere, she had crossed paths with the two people she wanted to see least at that moment: Harry and Hermione. Now put on full tilt, she ran the other way as soon as her eyes came into contact with the pair until she was fully exhausted. She found herself on the near side of the Black Lake, right below the ancient willow tree that had always sat on the bank of the great lake. Reluctantly, she sat down and calmed herself for several long, agonizing moments before standing up, taking three or four deep breaths, and walked back to the castle. It was getting dark, and she knew Filch would all but lynch her if he found her out of the Common Room past curfew. Once inside the Gryffindor Common Room, she was greeted by George, with whom she had not had a very personal talk concerning her love life.

"Hey Ginny, what's wrong, you look a bit down."  
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit upset, that's all."  
"Fred told me what happened Ginny, care to talk?"  
"No," Ginny said, and in a smaller voice, she added, "that bastard."  
"Well then, try this, it'll make you feel better." He said, handing her a small, round candy.  
"What is this?" She asked.  
"It's an ordinary muggle candy infused with a pepper-up potion. All the effects of a full dose of the stuff, none of the horrible taste. It's something me and Ha—whoops… Never mind."  
"Nah, talk about him all you want. I feel great, these really work. Tell him I said thanks. Goodnight, and thanks for the candy." Ginny said after quickly ingesting the candy in an effort to kill some of the pain she was feeling.  
"No problem. Glad I could help." George said while watching his sibling walk up the stairs to the girls dormitories.

-END CHAPTER—

Alrighty guys, here we are again. This one was short and sweet, in many cases literally, but it was the longest I could do on such short notice and I've got some things I need to take care of before leaving the house for half the month. Until next time guys!


	39. Hatching the Egg

Alright, I've only got four days to write this chapter, and I've been really busy with some other stuff, (this part was written on Wednesday the 15th, so if this is posted much later than that, I didn't get to finish in time before I went off again for another week with no computer access.) in either case, I hope you enjoy this guys!

-START CHAPTER—

The day after happened to be a Thursday, or, as me, Ron, and Riley called it, the worst day of the week. Why? You might ask, it was on Thursdays we had a double-length Potions class with the Slytherin fourth-years and Professor Snape, who was just as bad as them if not worse. Reluctantly, after breakfast, the four of us trudged down to the dungeons where Snape set up the classroom. It was as dreary and dusty as usual, and that didn't help one bit. As we set up our books and cauldrons on the desks we were assigned, I noticed that everyone on the other side of the room was wearing very large pins that said: "Support Cedric Diggory, the REAL Hogwarts champion!"

"Now wait just a damned minute." I said to myself as I saw one of these for the first time.  
"Don't let them get to you, mate. They're just being their ordinary selves, trying to tick off as many Gryffindors as they can." Ron said from behind me,  
"Yeah, I guess so, but I think I can tell you who came up with those things."  
"Did someone say Draco Malfoy?" Said person said very loudly and obnoxiously from right behind us as he strode to our desks.  
"What do you want Malfoy?" I asked, now a bit annoyed at his antics this time.  
"Oh, nothing much actually, we at Slytherin house just wanted to let you stuck-up Gryffindors where our loyalties lie, right boys?" There was much cheering from the opposite side of the room at this comment.  
"We'll settle this later then." Malfoy said again as "Professor" Snape walked into the room.

I didn't really learn anything from the class, as Snape gave us inadequate instruction for what he said was a simple potion. Even Hermione, with all the smarts she had, couldn't even finish the thing in time.

After classes for that day, of which Defense Against the Dark Arts were last, I met up once again with Cedric Diggory, who had some very interesting things to say.

"Harry, can we talk?" He asked, even though the hallway was full of people all contributing to a very loud bustle of voices, I could still hear Cedric, who was talking barely above a whisper.  
"Sure." I said as he led me away to some place slightly less populated. When he stopped just outside of the castle, we made sure there was no one around that could overhear us, he started.

"Next time you want to take a bath, I'd suggest the Prefect's bathroom on the fourth floor. It's the door immediately to the left of the staircase when you're going up. The password is "Pine Fresh," and take that egg of yours with you."  
"Uhh… thanks, not sure why you did that, but, thank you anyway." I said,  
"One good turn deserves another, right?" Cedric said right before he walked back into the castle.

That night, I decided to take him up on his offer and try out the prefects bathroom. With my invisibility cloak over my head, lightsaber and wand in my pockets, the golden egg in one hand and the Marauder's Map in the other, I silently made my way down to the fourth floor. I found the door Cedric was talking about easily and told it the password. Inside was the largest and most fantastic bathroom I'd ever seen. The tub had to be almost the size of the whole common room up in Gryffindor tower, and at least five feet deep. In a word, it was amazing. When I stripped down and tried to turn on the faucet, I found that there were different colored water taps for different temperatures. As I set it to how I liked it and let it fill up, I kept checking the Map, as there was no lock on the door for people who knew the password, always checking for when someone would show up. Once it was filled, I jumped in and swam to the faucets to make sure the room didn't flood. After soaking for a few minutes, I remembered the golden egg.

"Take that egg of yours with you," Cedric had said. What could that mean? That's it! I reached over to the edge of the tub and knocked the egg in. I dove in after it and opened it up under the water. Instantly, it began to sing:

_Come seek us where our voices sound,_  
_We cannot sing above the ground,_  
_And while you're searching ponder this;_  
_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_  
_An hour long you'll have to look,_  
_And to recover what we took,_  
_But past an hour, the prospect's black,_  
_Too late it's gone, it won't come back._

That was it. That was the second task. I had an hour to look for something that's important to me inside of the Black Lake. As I resurfaced and closed the egg, I heard a ghostly giggle from somewhere near the ceiling.

"So nice to see you again, Harry." Came the voice again.  
"Myrtle? Is that you?"  
"It would be, now what would you be doing here?"  
"You probably know something about one of these." I told the ghost, holding up the egg.  
"Yes. It took that other boy hours before he left with that thing. I thought the singing would never end. It gets stuck in my head too easy."  
"Myrtle, there aren't Merpeople in the Black Lake, are there?" I asked, figuring that if the egg couldn't talk above the water, neither could the egg's makers.  
"There might be." She said with another giggle and her ever-elusive smile.

As I left, I checked the map again to find Bartemus Crouch snooping around in Snape's Potions Supplies.

"What could he be doing there?" I asked, after all, he had no business there outside of the weeks approaching the tasks. And the second one wasn't until February. As I wondered these things, I dried off, got dressed, grabbed my things, and walked out the door.

The next morning, I decided to tell the rest of my gang about the egg.

"Hey, can I tell you all something real quick?" I asked Hermione, Riley, and Ron before we headed down for breakfast. Fred and George were already there, so that ruled them out. After a round of positives, I continued. "Last night, I figured out what the second task is."  
"How did you do that?" Hermione asked,  
"Well, Cedric decided to be nice and tell me to take a bath with that egg, and I did. I put the egg into the water and I opened it. It started singing, I can't remember exactly what it was, but the basic idea is that they'll take something valuable from me and I'll have an hour to find it underwater."  
"Whoa. That was a rush. But… how can you breathe underwater for an hour?" Ron asked,  
"That there is the hard part, I'll need to figure that out." I replied,  
"That was really nice of Cedric, wasn't it?" Hermione asked,  
"Hermione Granger in a nutshell Hogwarts!" I said with a snicker. She punched me lightly on the arm before moving over from her seat beside me and sitting on my lap and giving me a deep kiss. "Well, that was sudden."  
"What did you expect? Me to stop with the smack on the arm? No thank you."  
"Alright, break it up you two. I would say that's gross, but I'll most likely be doing the same thing here in an hour. I'm going get some breakfast, Ron, how about you come with me and give these two lovebirds some alone time?" Riley asked.  
"Sure, I'm starving. Let's go." Ron replied at almost inhuman speed. They both left the common room with ridiculous goofy expressions on their faces, obviously thinking they played some huge joke on us. Whatever it was, it was greatly appreciated…

-BREAK—

That afternoon, after classes, Malfoy decided to settle his piece with me.

"My father and I have a bet you know. He says you won't last ten minutes in the next task. I disagree… I don't think you will last five." He said as he stalked towards me. He chose a very opportune time, it was at a very rare moment that I was walking alone to Jace's office for another visit to the Jedi Temple for a preliminary knighthood test, which Obi-Wan had mentioned something about the Republic desperately needed knights, which is why I would be doing that particular exercise today.  
"I don't give a damn about what your father says Malfoy."  
"Oh do you now? And I suppose he could try to expel you for choosing to ignore the head of the Board of Governors for this school without you caring?"  
"DRACO MALFOY! Don't you dare make threats to another student like that!" Came a gruff voice from around a corner. As it turns out, it was Professor Moody, and as he walked into view, he pulled out his wand and cast a complicated looking spell which turned Draco into a solid white ferret. He spun him in the air for what must have been several long, embarrassing moments for the ferret in question. "Now," The half-crazy, paranoid professor said after he turned the Slytherin back to human form. "Mister Malfoy, I will see you in my office later tonight. Mister Potter, I assume you have somewhere to be?"

As I started walking to Jace's office, I heard Malfoy say "Just wait until my father hears about this."

Inside the Jedi Temple, the exam was tougher than almost anything I had previously done in my life. It had several long, challenging training sessions with various Jedi Knights and Masters alike, all trying to put me down. I, however, decided that it was not to be so and held on until they were finally done with me. After the exams, I was to appear before the whole Jedi Council.

Once inside the small chamber, I was met by said Council for several moments before any of them spoke up.

"Harry, as you know, the usual training time for a Jedi Knight is ten years, but, due to the dire times we are in due to this new rebellion, we have been forced to cut down on this time. We have been tracking your progress very closely, and we have felt that you are near the time for your Knight-hood. We have debated wether or not to give you a final Knighthood exam immediately and it is the will of the whole Jedi Council that you should continue your training, and take this test by this time next year on your calendar." It was Mace Windu speaking, who was pacing in front of his chair while making this speech. He seemed a bit worried about having my training time cut in half, but if things are as bad as they are making it sound, it sounded like they would need me out there.

"Thank you, masters." I said with a bow, they bowed back, which meant that I was excused. I walked out of the room, met Jace outside of the door, and planeswalked back to Earth.

-END CHAPTER—

So, I didn't get to finish up this chapter before going away again, but I think I got it out just in time as to not miss a week, and as always, leave me some reviews! I'd love to actually hear from more than one person each week!


	40. Camera!

The day of the Second Task was fast approaching and I still hadn't found a way to breathe underwater. Professor Moody had given Neville a book about Herbology, and he was currently telling me about some plant that feeds off pure oxygen, with its roots stuck up in the air.

"That's great Neville. Can you do me a favor?" I asked.  
"Yeah, sure. What is it?" Neville replied.  
"I need to find a way to breathe underwater for an hour. Is there like a plant that does that, or a certain kind of berry?"  
"You could always use Gillyweed. Tell me when you need it by and I can get you enough to last an hour."  
"Great," I said. And, in a lower voice, I added "It's for the second task, so I'll need it before then."

Later that afternoon, I was in the library looking for information on the Black Lake when Hermione walked in.

"Well, isn't this ironic?" She asked when she saw me sitting at a table near the section of books I required.  
"Very much so. I would ask you what you're doing here, but that would be pointless."  
She laughed before saying, "That it would. I might ask you the same thing."  
"Looking for information about the Black Lake for the second task." I said.  
"Ooh. Sounds fun. What have you found so far?"  
"That it has water in it, other than that, absolutely nothing." I said to her releasing fits of giggles once more.  
"That's always the best place to start, from the beginning. Let's get to work then."

The next time I visited Obi-Wan at the Jedi Temple, I wanted to make sure that I had a backup plan in case the Gillyweed didn't work long enough. After our training session for the day, I asked him the question:

"Master, does there exist a device that allows someone to breathe underwater?"  
"Yes there would. What would you needed it for?"  
"I assume Professor Beleren told you about the Triwizard tournament?" I asked, and to a nod of his head, I continued, "The second task requires me to go underwater and retrieve something, and I think it would be too deep for a single breath to do the job."  
"Wise decision. There does exist such a device. There are always extras in the storage units, follow me." He said. The equipment storage was a place that no padawan was allowed to go to unless he had permission from either his master or another knight, and since I never needed to go down there, it's existence was almost lost upon me. Upon arriving at the gate, for lack of a better term, the two guards standing by asked us our name and business.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi and Harry Potter kindly request an A99 Aqua-breather until further notice." Obi-Wan said to the guard. After he said this, one of them went into a room not too far from the entrance and walked into one of the rooms. He emerged with a black mouthpiece-looking object. It looked as if it could fit on someone's jaw line just fine. As it turned out, the thing is a long, tubular apparatus that filters oxygen from the water when one breaths in from the mouthpiece. It was elegant, and surprisingly complex. Once back at the training grounds, I took my leave of Obi-Wan and rejoined Jace. We planeswalked back to Earth and I went back to the common room to get some sleep.

-BREAK—

It was now the morning of the second task, and I couldn't be more excited. I was extremely prepared for this and I had a feeling I might come out on top again.

Last night, while me and Riley were playing a game of Exploding Snap in yet another attempt to prove to Hermione that the game was, in fact, simple, Professor Moody had walked in on our game and said that the Headmaster wanted to see Hermione and Riley immediately. Fortunately for me, I was already exhausted and it gave me an excuse to go to sleep. Riley was a bit upset about having her game cut short, and I ended up promising her another one after the task was over the next day. I hadn't seen either of them before I went to bed last night. So whatever it was, it had to be important to some degree.

At breakfast, I found Ron, Fred, and George sitting very near to each other whispering about something.

"Guys, what diabolical plot are you scheming up this time?" I asked as I sat down.  
"Not much…"  
"Just setting up odds for each of the other champions. Of course, we gave you the highest chance of winning." The Weasley twins said.  
"Ok. Just don't go too overboard, I don't want to have to bail you out of a gambling debt this early in life." I replied. They chucked a bit before continuing in silence. I had to eat breakfast in a hurry so that I could get changed into my swim trunks and go down to the Black Lake for another talk with Bartemus Crouch.

At the dock, I saw Mr. Crouch sitting on one of the stands that were built especially for this event. Due to my waking up a few minutes later than I intended, I was the last one to show up. I apologized for being late.

"N-n-no problem, boy. W-we can't s-start without you a-anyway…" He stuttered, looking off into the distance. He seemed distressed about something. "N-now… As you know, the s-s-second task will be u-underwater. You will e-each have one h-hour to find someone you w-w-would sore-sorely miss. For M-mr. Diggory, Miss Ch-Cho Chang. For Miss Delacour, young G-gabrielle Delacour. For Mr. Krum, m-miss Riley Granger. And Mr. Potter, miss H-Hermione Granger." As he said this, me and Krum both looked at each other and gave a simultaneous nod. I felt that we would be able to help each other out due to our respective strengths. Whatever the cause of Mr. Crouch's stuttering and shivering was, he seemed to have relaxed a bit than when I arrived a few moments ago.

The task was half an hour away, and several dozen people had already shown up, among these were Ron, Fred, and George, who, as promised, were walking around the stands taking bets and in turn, holding a large chest with a strap around their neck.

After the allotted time, the judges made their appearance. They sat down as was their usual fashion and made the announcement that would begin the event.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce the beginning of the Second Triwizard Task. In this event, the contestants are to descend into the depths of the lake to retrieve someone very close to them. They will have one hour to do so, if they do not resurface in the time allowed, they will be disqualified. Ms. McGonagall, if you would be so kind as to sound the gong?" I was holding the gillyweed nervously, the thought of Hermione and Riley disappearing forever, if the egg was entirely truthful, was almost unbearable. As a large ringing sound blasted through the still air, I placed the slimy, green substance into my mouth, swallowed it quickly, and dove into the water.

The gillyweed immediately began to take its effect, my windpipe was closed, and gills formed around my ribs. On my hands and feet were what looked like a webbing of some sort inbetween my fingers and toes, which was to help with swimming. And indeed it did. I quickly met up with Victor, who had transformed his upper body into that of a shark's head. I had a feeling that the girls were off to my left some, so I motioned Victor to follow me and I took off in that direction.

It was smooth sailing at first, which involved going nearly to the bottom of the Black Lake, being at that point privy to its namesake, as I found it very hard to see. I sensed there were fish swimming around me and seaweed growing on the floor of the lake. After swimming in the general direction that I indicated, I found that there were several merfolk barely visible in the darkness. They were standing guard on either side of us with stone tridents pointed towards the surface, staring at us. There were dozens of them, and they were quickly closing the gap between where we were and the area from which we came. After a few akward moments of slow progression, I finally caught a glimpse of them. All four girls were still in place, eyes closed with dreamy looks on their faces. I unhooked my lightsaber from my ankle strap and activated it. Surprisingly, it gave so much more light than I normally thought possible for the weapon. Regardless, I used it to slice off the ropes from both Granger twin's ankles. Victor was right behind me, who had instantly growled out a warning before the merfolk hordes attacked. I had tried to defend myself with the lightsaber, but before I had either dismembered or dispatched too many, three of them had wrenched the weapon from my hands and tossed it aside, leaving in its wake a large amount of dead merfolk. I pulled out my wand and stunned several of them. I had only one choice: to escape from them. I figured that since the egg hadn't sung until it was almost at the bottom of the bath, that they would not go too awfully near the surface. I had already told Victor to take the girls and go up, but they had attacked him, and grabbed Hermione from his grasp and replacing her where she had originally been. By this point, they had stopped their onslaught long enough for me to grab Hermione and swim for the surface. It took several long moments to reach the surface, but once I did, I was surprised to hear much applauding at my performance. There was about ten minutes left on the timer, and I feared that at this rate, Cedric and Fleur Delacour would not reach that spot in time, so I brought the still unconscious Hermione to the pier and dove back down. I approached the swarms of merfolk knowing full well what they would do to me, but if it meant saving two lives close to people I knew very little about, it would be worth it.

I did so, and as expected, they swarmed. Once again, I activated my lightsaber, but it was wrenched from my hands and deactivated to provide no further harm. That didn't really matter. They were free. I summoned my lightsaber with the force and shot up to the surface as fast as possible with two unconscious bodies in tow. The seamen didn't dare go too awfully near the bright-colored water, so I had plenty of headspace to swim upwards. The only problem with that was that the one hour the gillyweed gave me was up, and I writhed around in pain as I transformed back to fully human. Once done, I reached into my pocket and grabbed out the Aqua-breather so that I could continue my journey and not drop my charge. Once I reached the surface, I saw Cedric and Fleur sitting on the edge of the pier, both looking distraught in their own right. Once they saw me, they both cheered up greatly and had smiles on their faces. I swam back to the pier as Dumbledore made an announcement signaling the end of the task.

"I would like to call upon the panel of judges, who wish to make an announcement on the behalves of Victor Krum and Harry Potter. Mister Krum has informed us that it was not himself that retrieved his captive first, and that Mr. Potter distraced the merfolk that inhabit the lake so that he could take their… partners up to the surface. He insists that Mr. Potter should be awarded the first place in this task for moral fiber. Will the judges consent to this?" Five firecrack yeses later, the scoreboard changed to show that I was first overall gain, with Victor being a close second, and Cedric and Fleur tied for third.

-BREAK—

After the customary celebration party later that night, I was sitting with Hermione and Riley on one of the couches; Victor was to be joining us in a few moments, but I wanted to talk to them alone for a moment.

"Were you really going to… you know… disappear?" I asked. "I don't think Dumbledore would let that happen, but I'm too curious to let it go."  
"No, he said that after the task was done and we were still down there, the merfolk would bring us back up and revive us." Riley replied as Victor walked into the common room and took a seat next to Riley.  
"Hey Victor." She said as she promptly stole Hermione and I's customary greeting.  
"Hello Riley." He replied in his ever-improving English accent. Continuing, he said, "Harry, I'd like to thank you for what you did out there. I don't think we could've both gotten to the surface in time if you hadn't stayed behind and distracted the merfolk."  
"I would say don't mention it, but you did already, and you know you didn't have to do that, right?"  
"What are friends for?" He asked before pulling himself and Riley up from the couch and led her out of the room.  
"Friends?" I asked Hermione once they were gone. "Since when were we 'friends' per se?"  
"You've been hanging out with him on the Quidditch Pitch, right? And what about the tournament, that would have something about your mingling."  
"Yeah, but I didn't think it was that much. I might have to think about that one."  
"Don't, just trust him, it'll work out. Plus, he's dating my sister, so whether you like it or not, you'll be seeing him plenty."

-END CHAPTER—

Whoa… Ten thousand years can give you such a—no wait, wrong story… Uhh… It's good to be back guys! It's really been too long, what with one major case of writers block and a bit of (albeit late) spring cleaning. I hope I can get the next chapter up by this time next week, but I'm not sure as I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. Until next time, whenever that may be!


	41. Announcing!

Oh boy, it's been waay too long guys! I hope nobody thinks I've abandoned this story, which I'll admit I almost did several times throughout the last year, but I held on! I hope you all (one? I don't even know any more…) enjoy this next installment, because you know as well as I do that it might not happen for another forever and a half.

-START CHAPTER—

The next day, classes restarted again as normal. It seemed to bother a great many students, but that was just because they were previously spoiled by days off for Quidditch games and this year for the Triwizard Tasks. It seemed half of the Gryffindor house held this belief, and I had thought it strange and it held most of my thoughts until the mail arrived. Hermione got her copy of the Daily Prophet from one of the Ministry owls as usual. Upon unraveling it and reading the front page, her face went stark red and she showed it to Riley, who was sitting across from us before I could see what it was about.

"And I thought I liked Skeeter too…" Hermione said in a huff after handing off the paper.  
"What's wrong, love?" I asked.  
"Skeeter. She wrote an article about Riley and Victor, saying me and her have some 'taste for famous wizards' or something like that. Complete rubbish."  
"Yeah, that's horrible, how did that happen? Didn't they both say they wanted to keep it a secret?"  
"They did, but somehow Skeeter got a hold of it and look at what she did with it."  
"Hm. Must have had Malfoy spy on us or something." I said with a face that was a bit too calm for her liking and she then turned on me.  
"Aren't you angry about this happening or not?" She asked in a mad whisper.  
"No," I said, but before I could continue my train of thought, she said  
"And why not?"  
"As I was saying, I'm not mad about it, that could be fatal to someone like me. Upset? Very much so. Mad? Certainly not, but don't think I'm apathetic about this whole thing."  
"Fine." Hermione said as she looked away from either me or Riley and continued to eat in silence.  
"Well at least you don't have another secret to hide anymore." She didn't respond, but I had a feeling she was only doing it for sake of consistency.

At the transfigurations class, in lieu of the Second Task the previous day, was inspired by Krum to give a small talk on human to animal transfigurations.

"Now that everybody is here, I think that now would be an excellent time to discuss human to animal transfiguration, similar to the spell Durmstrang Champion Victor Krum performed on himself to transform his upper-body into that of a Great White Shark. I understand that several of you are interested in the inner workings of such a spell, and have decided to teach you the theory behind it. Please be aware that these spells are extremely dangerous and should never be attempted alone." She seemed to look straight at Riley when she was talking, but she was looking around the room quickly so as not to attract too much attention. I felt that she had also read the paper along with most of the school, so naturally everyone knew about it and had been talking in whispers from the time the mail arrived. Mental ramblings or no, the wizened professor continued. "These kinds of spells are not even taught at most wizarding schools, if that will say something about the difficulty of them…" She continued with the very basics of it, and with a very, very strong warning not to try and use them while in school or face extremely serious consequences.

In our next class, which happened to be Potions, Snape was obviously having a good day, seeing as he only docked ten points from Gryffindor the whole two hours and had not been so harsh on Neville as was his custom. We were making the Super Soldier Serum that day, it was like a strength potion, but one that lasted for the rest of the drinker's life. It was extremely dangerous to drink and very challenging to make. Snape had said he would let it sit for two months and then smell them to ensure that the quality was desireable. I had a feeling that he knew some of his students in this particular class were proficient enough at making potions that he could sell the high-quality cauldrons and throw out the others for a hefty profit. The serum has quite the history in itself: it was originally developed by American wizards for the Muggle government in the United States around fourty years ago to have an upper-hand in the war that they were engaged in, both wizarding and muggle worlds wanted an advantage in this fight, and the potion let them do it. I highly doubted anyone except for Hermione had gotten the potion anywhere near perfection due to the difficulty of it. The potions professor was obviously either very interested in the Serum or had had a nice chat with the headmaster of Durmstrang.

Later, after classes, Fred and George were working on the betting that they were holding yesterday to determine how much money was to be awarded to whom. It looked just as if they were finishing up when I walked over to where they were sitting in the common room.

"Hey, how's our cash cow doing this fine evening?" Fred asked,  
"Fine, wait—cash cow? How much money did you guys make yesterday?" I asked.  
"Not too much, only fifty galleons…" George started.  
"Enough to get the joke shop started." Fred finished.  
"What joke shop? Is this thing secret enough for you not to tell me?" I asked.  
"We just did." They both said.  
"Fair enough, but how much will you need to get started?"  
"We found a place that's for sale at Diagon Alley, they're asking five-hundred Galleons, plus we'll need money to start making our various devices." George said.  
"How about this: Next time we go to Diagon Alley, I'll get the you guys money you need, it's not like I'll miss it anytime soon."  
"No, we can get the money we need ourselves." Fred stated.  
"What about this then: If I win the Triwizard Tournament, then you take the prize money and start up the shop with it."  
"Deal." They said in unison. I think they figured that it wouldn't put a damper on my finances too much, and that I wouldn't need or even want the additional funds.

As this was going on, Hermione arrived with Riley from the girls' dorms; the latter of the two had been extremely upset and had been almost crying all day from the nagging and harassment from most of the girls in the castle and the Slytherin house as a whole. She had finally broken down just after Defense Against the Dark Arts with Moody, who had performed several stinging hexes on students who were picking fun with her while trying not to get the paranoid teacher's attention. But alas, it had failed and the Professor performed the offending hex on their hands, which had immediately swollen up.

They sat down on the couch and Riley cried softly into Hermione's shoulder. I excused myself from the Weasley twins to see if I could comfort my friend.

"Hey Riley, are you alright?" I asked nervously, wondering how she would react. She did so very differently than I expected. She got up and threw her arms around my shoulders and whispered into my ear: "How do you do it Harry? I can't stand all this attention."  
She leaned off of me and sat down on the couch normally, arms crossed and tears running down her face.  
"Just ignore it, you remember in our first year when everyone was staring at my forehead? I was bothered by it at first, for a long time really, but until I finally stopped paying them any attention did it really stop. Just do the same thing and eventually all of the hype will die down."  
"Anything's worth a try, thanks for the advice." She replied and gave me a hug before walking back up to her bedroom.  
"Thanks Harry." Hermione said before following her twin.

The next day was, unfortunately, the same for Riley, what with half the castle picking on her for her choice of dates and whatnot, but she seemed to take my advice to heart and tried not to pay attention to it. By far, it seemed that she was doing a lot better today than yesterday. The classes today were uneventful, but something caught my eye as I was walking past Snape's potion stores:

Snape and Karkaroff were talking to each other in disgruntled whispers, like they were both angry at the other for whatever reason.

"I'm telling you Severus, the Mark is growing, regaining strength. He is planning to come back, and we both know what will happen then." Said the foreign headmaster.  
"It is impossible, the Potter boy destroyed him ages ago."  
"Don't deny that you've felt it. The pain… it was unbearable at times. Mark my words Severus, the Dark Lord will return, and when he does, he'll not be happy."  
"I can assure you the Dark Lord will not be coming back to this earth any time soon. If that was all you wanted, it's best that you be off." Snape said as he walked out of the large closet. "Potter, don't you have somewhere to be? On second thought… Do you know of the properties that lacewing flies adds to any potion? What about boomslang skin? Or perhaps knotgrass? You sir have been making Polyjuice Potion, and I want to know why."  
"I don't know what you're talking about professor."  
"A likely excuse. However, I will catch you, and you will be sorry you ever tried to steal from me."  
"Alright then, I'll be going now." I said as I swiftly walked towards the Gryffindor common room before he could say another word.

The next morning, Dumbledore announced that we would have the day off of classes for a special announcement that the heads of house would announce as they saw fit. Of course, Professor McGonagall wanted to do it right the first time and wasn't ready until after lunch was over. In that time, she had managed to locate an old, abandoned classroom, trangfigure a room full of desks into several rows of what looked like muggle bleachers up against the walls she had also, by some form or another, acquired an old phonograph and an old blues-sounding record was spinning around on it's track.

"Welcome Gryffindor House, now that I have you all here, Professor Dumbledore wanted me to announce this to you privately, and so I have. He wished to inform you all of the Yule Ball, that is a tradition within the Triwizard Tournament to be held Christmas night. The Yule Ball, of course, is a dance. Mr. Weasley, if you would kindly volunteer and allow me to demonstrate." She said as she motioned to Ron to get up on his feet and follow the aged teacher to the middle of the room.

At length, they began to dance, if one could call it that. Ron was behaving so awkwardly that it hardly seemed like he was dancing rather than spinning around in jagged circles. Almost everyone in the room was trying not to laugh at this point, and from my left, I heard Fred's voice say:

"I'll bet you five sickles that Ron almost trips before they're one."  
"Harry, don't—" Hermione started to say  
"Done." I replied to Fred.  
"Why do you keep doing that?"  
"I'm me, quite frankly, it's what I do."  
"Will you ever give me a straight answer when I ask you a question?"  
"I could, but then I wouldn't be the guy you love, now would i?"  
"Good point." Hermione said just as the music stopped.  
"Looks like I owe someone five sickels." I said to myself as the Professor motioned for everyone to get up and find a dance partner while she restarted the record.

"Now, I wonder which of these lovely ladies would like to dance with me?" I said just loud enough for Hermione to hear me.  
"Very funny." She said as she wrapped her arms around my neck as we began to dance.  
"So that would be you then?"  
"I suppose so." She replied as we kissed softly. Dancing wasn't as hard as I thought it was. It turns out that it's relatively simple, but just needs some getting used to. After the song was finished once again, it seemed that a good number of the boys and a few of the girls had opted out of a dance and were sitting on the sidelines making fun of how Ron was dancing earlier. Of course, he was joining in the fun himself.

"Fred and George are going to give you such a hard time for that." Hermione said.  
"I know Hermione, but it was just so funny at the time. Do I still have a dunce cap on by any chance?" Ron replied. Nobody said either a positive or negative response, but Riley did give him a punch on the arm, to which they were both nervously standing there for a few seconds.  
"So, I suppose I might be the first to ask you to the Ball, Hermione?" I said after we found a section of the bench that was unoccupied.  
"I suppose so, who else would dare ask me, though?"  
"I can think of a few people…" I started, actually being serious for once.  
"Someone who would risk their lives for a horrible joke?"  
"No, I was thinking either Snape just to get on my nerves, or Colin Creevey to get some attention out of me." She gave a shudder after I was finished this sentence. "That bad?"  
"Yes that bad. Could you imagine me kissing Snape?"  
"Point taken. Come on, lets go somewhere that we can get away from the whole house."  
"Right behind you."


	42. That Chrismas Chapter

Hey all! I might have to put this on hold for at least a little while because of my schooling again… I'll update this whenever I can, but in the meantime, here's what I could come up with in a week. It's been a solid month since I looked at this, so sorry about that… . (And yes, before you ask, this chapter IS the answer to life's greatest question. What that question is, you'll never know… Hehehehe…)

-START CHAPTER—

It was six weeks after McGonagall introduced the idea of the Yule Ball to us, it was Christmas Eve, the day that the ball was to take place, and I was nervously waiting on our usual sofa for Hermione to come out of the girls dorm. As far as I was concerned, she had spent the last two hours getting ready, which would explain why she wasn't at dinner along with half of the fourth year and up girls. At long last, she walked down the set of stairs that I had been staring at as soon as I had gotten into the dress robes I had ordered from a catalog for wizard's formal wear, which had been at least three quarters of an hour. And. It. Was. Totally. Worth. It. She had on a solid white dress with a pair of high heels and had her usual shoulder-length auburn hair done up in a pony-tail.

"So, what do you think?" She asked as I stood up to meet her.  
"What do I think? If I were to drop dead right now, I would die happy." I replied. She would have laughed, but she could tell I was dead serious.  
"I suppose that means I did a good job then?" When I replied in the affirmative, she continued. "Ginny gave me the idea to do my hair like this. I wouldn't have come up with the idea without putting much thought to it. She said that muggles in Britan do their hair like this, and I completely forgot about it until she reminded me of them and of her father's fascination in muggles.  
"Yeah. It looks great. It was a really good idea too. Shall we be off then?" I asked, overly dramatically offering her my arm.  
"We shall." Hermione replied as she took it and we began to travel down to the great hall.  
"Hermione, was your sister finished getting ready when you came down?"  
"I didn't see her upstairs, but knowing her, she's already half done while eating supper in the kitchens with Ron so that it would seem like she took her time on it."  
"That is definitely something she would do." I said as we passed said sister on the way to where the ball was being held.  
"Hey guys." She said as she passed us on the way to the common room.  
"You might want to hurry up Riley, it starts in fifteen minutes." I called back.  
"It does… Oh no!" She cried as she began to take the stairs two at a time in a mad rush to finish up with her preperations.  
"That certainly doesn't sound good." Hermione said moments later.  
"Not at all. Hopefully she can get finished on time. I would hate to see Victor disappointed that his date didn't arrive on time."

-BREAK—

The formal part of the ball was started at nine o'clock precisely. Enough time for students to clear out of the Great Hall after dinner while giving the house elves enough time to change around the design of the room. The usual house tables were replaced with smaller, circular ones with six chairs per. These took up about half of the room while the front half was dedicated to an elevated platform that was to be used for dancing. Shortly after nine, the music that was coming from the phonograph Professor McGonagall had produced for the announcement began to slow down in pace from the disco-like track to a slower song that was much more fitting for ballroom dancing. The champions were to start the first dance, so naturally the four champions had the honor of having the floor to themselves until the rest of the castle joined in. Along with Hermione and myself, Victor and Riley as dancing partners, Cedric had brought along a fifth year Ravenclaw by the name of Cho Chang, and Fleur's date appeared to be the only boy brave enough to ask her that caught enough of her attention.

After five minutes of what had to be the best time of my life, I heard the music change, which meant that the other students would be joining in. But that didn't matter, all that mattered was me and Hermione. The one person that really understood me, no matter how different I was, how excluded I was from the rest of the castle, she was always there for me. Whenever I needed something, anything, she was by my side. No matter how many school rules it broke, she would be there. (A/N: Readers, if you would so kindly get your heads out of the gutter and read, please. Thank you.)

After a while of just standing there, not moving at all, just the both of us holding onto each other for dear life, we decided to sit on the sidelines while the rest of the castle's occupants danced until midnight, signaling the end of the ball. Ron even looked happy with himself, even though he had not found himself a date, he was lucky enough to be best friends with the one guy that half the female population of the school had a crush on. I had seen to it that he got to come, escorting Padma Patil, one of the Ravenclaw girls in our year. I had asked Paravati, her twin sister, if she was doing anything tonight, and when she replied with a no, I told Ron about it, and a few days later, sure enough, he had himself a date.

As the twelfth chime started sounding, Hermione was the first one out of the whole room to suggest that we leave, claiming that Ron, and maybe Riley, would have the rest of us up at six in the morning weather we liked it or not.

"Good point," I replied after not even a second of thought. "Do you want to go now?"  
"I'd rather sooner than later."  
"Alright, let's get going."

-BREAK—

The next morning, sure enough, no later than 6:15 AM, Ron and Riley were both at my bedside, trying to wake me up.

Before I was too conscious, I heard one of them say "Do you think it'll hurt more if we slap him with his prosthetic arm?"  
"OK, I'm up. Yes, it does, very much so, thank you." I said as I got out of bed and slipped a pair of slippers onto my feet, and reluctantly followed them downstairs into the common room. I had put my gifts to everyone under the huge Christmas Tree last night, and I was extremely grateful now that I had done so.  
"See? Told you. Six o'clock." Hermione said in her know-it-all attitude that I had come to love over the years.  
"Technically, it's six fifteen, but I get the point." I said as I sat down beside her on the floor, both of us still tired from the previous night. Ron and Riley, however, were very much awake and very excited.

"Go on Harry, open up the one from me!" Ron said excitedly.  
"Alright, I will, eventually, give me a minute to wake up and MAYBE I might not knock you out into next week."  
"Who's grumpy now?" Ron asked, sounding smug. "Come on, you guys'll love what I got you."

I was immediately handed a medium sized box with red wrapping paper covering it. I opened it up to calm Ron's excitement a bit, and inside was a broomstick cleaning kit.

"Thanks Ron," I said sincerely. I had not expected something as expensive as this from him, seeing as it was manufactured by one of the name brand companies.  
"Your welcome. Mum said that it was the least we could do." Ron replied.

I proceeded to open up the gift from Hermione and Riley, which contained a large assortment of candies from Honeydukes from Riley and a wand holster from Hermione.

"Thanks girls. I appreciate it." I said after seeing what was in the box.  
"No problem Harry." Riley said.  
"I thought you'd like it." Hermione replied and gave me a swift kiss on the cheek.  
"Yeah, this'll definitely be useful."

And so the merrymaking continued, which may or may not have involved Fred and George giving everyone a Canary Cream inside of the candies they got everyone. Sometime around ten A.M., Sirius used the floo network from Grimmauld Place to the Gryffindor common room to give out his presents personally. He said he was doing great when we asked, and that he's thinking of opening up a store in either Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, but what about he's not sure yet.

No one, or, at least me, was surprised when the Weasley twins' ears perked up and they both looked at each other, an idea already formulating in their seemingly connected minds.

"Well enough about me, how have you all been?" He asked.

Everyone replied in the affirmative when he continued.

"Great, here you go, be careful." He said with a devilish smile. For a split second everyone was scared to open their presents, but figured it wouldn't be too painful if it was something like that.

As it turned out, every single gift did not have even one small practical joke attached to them. He seemed to go all out, appealing to the inner prankster within each of us. His gifts to us were useful outside of pranking, but were twice that when used mischievously.

The rest of the day was a great time, but unfortunately Sirius had to leave before anyone thought that he was staying too long, seeing as most of the house was enjoying each other's company, very few noticed that Sirius Black was among them, and even less even bothered to give a damn.

"See you all later, then?" Sirius asked, then without waiting for a reply, jumped into the fireplace with a handful of floo powder.

"Well, now what?" I asked mostly to fill the awkward silence that ensued afterwards.  
"Harry, I do have one other gift for you, but you'll have to come see first…" Hermione said as she ran out of the common room as fast as she could. I smiled and got up to follow her, both of us full well knowing that wherever she chose to hide, I could literally jump her from behind.

-END CHAPTER—

Sorry it took me like, forever and three days to get this posted, but like I said, I've been really busy now that school's started up again and I'm afraid that I might have to make updates of this slightly less frequently. Don't worry, they won't be this often, but don't get excited every Sunday mid afternoons where I live, (the time in the week I would usually post chapters for you noobs). Maybe two a month if I get around to it. I would really hate to abandon this story, I've got SOO many great ideas planned out I don't know if I can fit them all… I'll just have to wait and see, won't i? And I'm sure you won't mind either…


	43. Malfoy? Interlude

Hey guys! It's good to be back in the swing of thing. Yes, I am up until 1A.M., Yellow Power ring on my finger, and a Nerdcore mix tape on my Ipod, to bring you all this story, am I ashamed of it? Aw, Hell no, quite proud of it, in fact. Will I try to keep writing? Absolutely! Without further adieu, I present to you chapter 43! This chapter told in third person for sake of keeping with the flow of things, if you catch my drift, if not, just read on and you'll see what I mean.

-START CHAPTER—

Once Lucius had finished his work for the day in the Ministry of Magic, he had an appointment with a good friend. He had known him for years, he was born during Lucius' second year at school, but had met him much later. He would love to catch up on the times, but today he had business plans to discuss.

Once using the Ministry Floo Network to return to his home, he was expecting to see his accomplice sitting in the den. He was sure Narcissa would have let him in if he arrived. Moments later, he realized that he had not yet and a small perimeter ward had just gone off, and he saw that his was his old friend, Bartemus Crouc Jr. walking towards the front gate.

"Ah. Bartemus, how are you. Come inside, it's rather cold out." The head of the Malfoy family said as he used his arms to direct his guest into the manor.  
"Just fine I guess. Been having a tough time with that kid." Crouch replied. He was always one to be frank, no matter what the situation.  
"Ah yes, he can be quite a tough nut to crack." They walked inside just as the effects of Polyjuice Potion faded from young Crouch. The Malfoy head knew that there was no way that Alastor Moody could have passed through his wards without him knowing, and the way he had greeted him gave him all the assurance he needed. Others would have considered him to be reckless in that moment, but they were either not present, dead, or will never know that this conversation took place.

Lucius led Crouch Jr. into the sitting room for whatever conversation he had arrived for.

"So tell me Bartemus, what of the Tournament as of late?"  
"Potter won the first task, tied for first in the second. Dumbledore suspects nothing yet."  
"As well and good as that is, what plans do you have to ensure that he gets to the trophy before his competitors?"  
"The Imperius Curse works wonders on powerful, yet weak willed subjects."  
"A very logical point, and of the Portkey?"  
"Already set up. Switched out the one we made for the real one just yesterday. As far as the school staff in concerned, I'm a paranoid old ex-Auror."  
"Excellent. And of the boy? Has he met Alastor Moody before?"  
"Not to my knowledge. Dumbledore has hinted at recruiting past members of the Order of the Phoenix as part time vigilante Aurors, and wants Moody to lead them. I suspect that I shall play along with it for as long as I can."  
"Interesting. Well, this has been very informative for me, Bartemus. Feel free to visit whenever you have the chance."  
"Thank you. I believe I will take you up on that offer quite soon."

-BREAK-

It was Christmas morning, and the girl had never felt better. She had just celebrated with her friends and was heading towards the front gates, alone. In order to explain this, let us go back to early November, the reason she was going, a boy, one year ahead of her, had asked her on a date. Both of them were never without red faces the entire time, but they didn't care. It was almost like love at first sight, except that they had seen each other plenty times before, and were not on too friendly of terms. But nonetheless, they had hit off like two peas in a pod. They had kept it a secret, for no other reason than to ensure that no fun would be poked at them. They even went so far as to antagonize the other if they so happened to be in the same room with either of the couple's friends.

But back to the story at hand. The two had decided to meet at the gates, as previously mentioned. When the two saw each other, they made sure they were alone before embracing each other like they had not done before. They had not been so excited to see each other before, the couple's hearts were racing as they let go of one another and nervously exchanged gifts.

The boy had searched the jewelry store at Hogsmeade for hours before finally settling on the design he liked. It was a simple, golden chain with a snake sleeping next to a lion, and on the inside of the locket was a moving photo of the boy. The girl had slaved over the boy's gifts for just as long; and finally decided to give him a pair of homemade gloves. They were designed specifically for Quidditch, but were perfectly acceptable to use off of the pitch.

They had both appreciated the other's gifts, and had begun to walk around the Black Lake talking. The boy had a confession to make.

"Listen, there's something I want to tell you, please don't be offended, but… I… the o-only reason I originally asked you out was because of my father. He-he… he said it would be good to get the Death Eater stigma off of our family's back, and w-with the history yours has, he believed it would be i-ideal. But now… now I'm glad he did. If it wasn't for that push, I never would have asked you on a date. If not for that… I never would have fallen in love with you."

The girl was shocked, but found it surprisingly easy to believe. "I… I don't know what to say really, of course, I am grateful to your father for encouraging you. I believe it, but I feel that you really mean it. You're not just playing some game with me, are you?" With a shake of his head, she continued. "Honestly, I still don't know why I accepted, maybe it was because of the whole 'me crying into your arms for almost an hour' thing, maybe not, but considering how I was acting at the time, I'm still in shock I can call you my boyfriend, even if secretly. I just… I don't know. I'm getting too mushy right now this has to stop."

"Okay, no more mushy business, but just after this one thing."  
"What?"  
"I love you Ginny." The boy said.  
"I love you too, Draco." The girl replied before the couple began kissing.

Not even one moment later, another young couple drifted along to underneath the willow tree that sat on the edge of the Black Lake. They both knew well the young girl standing not thirty feet in front of them, kissing the boy who had soaked up much of their negative emotions throughout the past three and a half years.

"What should we do?" The other boy, commonly known to his peers as Harry, asked the girl beside him.  
"I'm not entirely sure, but I think the sooner we tell Ron, the less dramatic it will be for the whole family."  
"You might be right, but we should wait at least a few days. I don't think this is the surprise Christmas gift we really want to give him." Hermione replied. Neither wanted to even so much as move for fear of disturbing the scene before them or alerting the two to their presence.

Finally, Draco and Ginny separated and took a seat on the opposite side of the willow from where Harry and Hermione were.

"You know," Draco started, "If three months ago, if someone told me that I would be spending my Christmas morning with a Weasley and thoroughly enjoying myself, I would have told them they were insane, but yet… Here I am."  
"Same here. If my brothers would find out, the whole castle would know, and I'd be willing to bet Hermione, with Riley reluctantly tagging along at that, would give me a very stern talking to." Hermione nodded in agreement from the other side. "And if someone told me I'd be here now, with you, like this especially, I would have questioned their sanity similarly."  
"You know, you're welcome to visit the Manor anytime you'd like. I'm sure you and my mother would get alone quite well."  
"I think I'd like that, although literally everyone I know would object, it would have to be just for the day."  
"Any longer would arouse suspicion, don't you think?"  
"I think me showing up there period would arouse suspicion."

"Definitely." Harry whispered from the other side of the tree.  
"What do we do about this?" Hermione asked.  
"Nothing just yet. Maybe wait to see if it blows over. Hopefully this is just some casual fling or something. With any luck, they'll be apart by Valentine's. If not, it's a good place to start." 

-BREAK—

"So, we wait a while to see if this is real?"  
"Yes, Hermione, for the tenth time. If they really like each other, I might have to try and not kill him every time I see him."  
"That's what I'm worried about. I've read up on what little the library has to offer on Sith, and it's not pretty, I'd hate for you to become something like that."  
"Don't worry about me. I won't actually kill him, but it's a pleasant thought when I'm in a bad mood. As for Ginny, if you really want to get to the bottom of this, start talking about Hogsmeade trips and Valentines Day, see if she lets it slip."  
"Alright. I trust you. If this goes south, then what?"  
"Then, depending on the situation, we either make Malfoy's life a living hell or we make sure that the Weasley family doesn't get into some kind of civil war." Harry said. He was quite sure the latter would be the more likely scenario, given the attitudes the both of them shared under the willow tree. It was late in the afternoon, and Ginny had still not returned to the common room since then. He assumed she was still with Draco, the odds of it being anything else than him and food were slim to none.

Nonetheless, he would be sure to keep a close watch on the both of them in the coming months.

-END CHAPTER—

So, this one is a bit short compared to my usual standards, but it's here anyways, so who's complaining? I might just kill myself trying to figure out how to expand this anymore, so I decided to cut it off here. Until next time guys!


End file.
